smackers = dollars (1918)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

OED2 has 1920 for "smackers" in the monetary sense.

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1918 _Chicago Tribune_ 13 Jan. V2/4 "I'm feelin' pretty good," said the
boy. "A thousan' smackers is a fancy hunk o' change, even for me."
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1918 _Chicago Tribune_ 27 Jan. V5/4 Jus' so's not to have no bad feelin's
an' no bother goin' in courts an' that kind o' stuff, I'll give you a thou
-- one cold, clear thousand smackers.
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Both of the above cites are from short stories by Jack Lait ("The Tallow
Youth" and "The Curse of an Aching Heart", both copyright 1917). Bugs Baer
also used the expression frequently in his columns in 1918-19, e.g.:

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1918 _Evening State Journal_ (Lincoln, Neb.) 26 Dec. 10/4 The old slotted
eyed bird stepped into America when the stepping was good, grabbed off a
million smackers and abdicated back to the Formosan Islands before they
raised the price of eggs on him.
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1918 _Evening State Journal_ (Lincoln, Neb.) 26 Dec. 10/4 Just lamp John
Rockefeller. ... He has a billion smackers but no appetite.
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1919 _Bridgeport Standard Telegram_ 22 Apr. 16/1 If you want to get rid of
your wife, why waste a thousand smackers on a divorce?
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1919 _Bridgeport Standard Telegram_ 31 May 18/5 They hooked his mother for
$40,000 and his son brought 12,000 smackers.
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--Ben Zimmer