A money bag (or money sack) is a

bag A bag, also known regionally as a sack, is a common tool in the form of a floppy container, typically made of cloth, leather, bamboo, paper, or plastic. The use of bags predates recorded history, with the earliest bags being lengths of animal s ...

normally used to hold and transport

coin A coin is a small object, usually round and flat, used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to facilitate trade. They are most often issued by ...

s and

banknote A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commerc ...

s, often closed with a drawstring.Fallen money bag sparks Ohio cash grab

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

, 25 March 2010 (retrieved 10 January 2012) When transported between banks and other institutions, money bags are usually moved in armored cars or money trains. It is a type of currency packaging. Money bags are often portrayed in cartoons and other light popular culture.

History

According to the account given in the Bible's

Gospel of John The Gospel of John () is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a highly schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "Book of Signs, signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the ...

Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot (; ; died AD) was, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane, in exchange for thirty pieces of sil ...

carried the disciples' money bag. During the

Roman era In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

, the Legio IV Scythica was camped in Zeugma, a city of

Commagene Commagene () was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Orontid dynasty, Orontids, a dynasty of Iranian peoples, Iranian origin, that had ruled over the Satrapy of Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ...

(modern-day Turkey). Excavations carried out in the city have revealed 65,000 seal imprints in clay, known as ''bullae'', found in a place which is believed to have served as the archives for the

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

of Zeugma. The seal imprints used in sealing papyrus, parchment, moneybags, and customs bales are good indications of the volume of trade and the density of transportation and communication networks once established in the region. Charon's obols, a death custom originating in ancient Greece whereby a coin is placed with a corpse, from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD in Western Europe, were often found in pouches, making them ''money pouches''. From the Middle Ages to around 1900, Rottweiler dogs were used by travelling butchers at markets to guard money pouches tied around their necks. Beginning in the 14th century, purses of money (''panakizhi'') were awarded to scholars during the Revathi Pattathanam, an annual assembly of scholars held in

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

, India. In 16th century feudal Japan, samurai wore '' uchi-bukuro'' ('money purses') around the waist or neck. In 1620, pediatric tracheotomy was unheard of until a boy tried to hide a bag of gold by swallowing it. It became lodged in his

esophagus The esophagus (American English), oesophagus (British English), or œsophagus (Œ, archaic spelling) (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, see spelling difference) all ; : ((o)e)(œ)sophagi or ((o)e)(œ)sophaguses), c ...

and blocked his

trachea The trachea (: tracheae or tracheas), also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all animals' lungs. The trachea extends from ...

. The tracheotomy allowed the surgeon to manipulate the bag, and it passed through his system. In September 1864, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a Confederate agent, drowned with a bag of gold around her neck after leaving the ''Condor'' (a British blockade runner ship) in a boat.

Nickname

A wealthy person can have the

nickname A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...

"moneybag" (or "moneybags").

Marcus Licinius Crassus Marcus Licinius Crassus (; 115–53 BC) was a ancient Rome, Roman general and statesman who played a key role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. He is often called "the richest man in Rome".Wallechinsky, Da ...

(c. 115-53 BC), a leading Roman politician in his day, was known in Rome as '' Dives'', meaning "the Rich" or "Moneybags". Ivan I of Moscow ("Ivan the Moneybag") was a Russian Grand Duke of Moscow from 1328-1341 who was famous for being generous with his wealth. American cardinal

Francis Spellman Francis Joseph Spellman (May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) was an Catholic Church in the United States, American Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Archbishop of New York from 1939 until his death in 1967. F ...

(1889–1967) was sometimes called "Cardinal Moneybags" in his later life, while Chicago mobster and racketeer

Murray Humphreys Murray Humphreys (born Llewellyn Morris Humphreys; April 20, 1899 – November 23, 1965), also known as The Camel or The Hump, was a Chicago mobster of Wales, Welsh descent who was the chief political fixer (person), fixer and labor racketee ...

(1899–1965) was referred to as "Mr. Moneybags" by his friends. James Edward "Baron of Edgerton" Hanson's (1922–2004) billion-dollar empire earned him the nickname "Lord Moneybags". In fiction, Miss Moneybags (played by

Edna Purviance Olga Edna Purviance (; October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with him ...

) is a character in the 1915 Charlie Chaplin silent comedy film '' The Count''. Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) of ''The Young and the Restless'' soap opera, has also been called "Moneybags".

In popular culture

PostcardToCanadaForInvestmentInCanada1907

Money bags have been represented in art and culture throughout human history, including paintings, literature, film, television, games, and even food. * A leno, a stock character in the theatre of ancient Rome (1st century BC to 5th century AD), is often depicted carrying a money bag. *

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

sculpture (c.10th-11th centuries AD) shows various Jain gods ( Yaksa Sarvanubhuti) and/or their attendants/servants, holding money bags (''chowrie'', ''noli''),''Jaina-Rup̄a-Manḍạna, Volume 1''
Umakant Premanand Shah, Abhinav Publications, 1987, pp. 48,73,116,121-2,124,156,219,220,233,326 at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

purses (''nakulika''), or "purse-like objects" Buddhist ( Pañcika and

Vaiśravaṇa (Sanskrit: वैश्रवण) or (Pali; , zh, s=多闻天王, t=多聞天王, p=Duōwén Tiānwáng, ) is one of the Four Heavenly Kings, and is considered an important figure in Buddhism. He is the god of warfare and usually portrayed as ...

/Jambhala) and Hindu (

Kubera Kubera (, ) also known as Kuvera, Kuber and Kuberan, is the god of wealth, and the god-king of the semi-divine yakshas in Hinduism. He is regarded as Guardians of the directions, the regent of the north (''Dikpala''), and a protector of the ...

) deities/gods/goddesses have money bags (or purses or their equivalent--"bag/sheath of jewels", etc.) as part of their

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

. * Around 1130, Hugh of St. Victor's ''Chronicas

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literature, literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface o ...

refers to a money bag ('' sacculus'' or ''sacculum'' in Latin), with its compartments, as a memory training analogy. * '' The Conjurer'', a c. 1502 painting by Hieronymus Bosch, features a child stealing a money purse from a bespectacled character. National-Debt-Gillray

* Around 1791,

James Gillray James Gillray (13 August 1756Gillray, James and Draper Hill (1966). ''Fashionable contrasts''. Phaidon. p. 8.Baptism register for Fetter Lane (Moravian) confirms birth as 13 August 1756, baptism 17 August 1756 1June 1815) was a British list of c ...

published a cartoon about reaction to the

Boydell Shakespeare Gallery The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a School (discipline), school of British history painting. ...

labelled "Boydell sacrificing the Works of Shakespeare to the Devil of Money-Bags". * ''

The Apotheosis of Washington ''The Apotheosis of Washington'' is the fresco painted by Greek- Italian artist Constantino Brumidi in 1865 and visible through the oculus of the dome in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. The fresco i ...

'' (1865), a fresco in the dome in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building that contains a commerce scene with the Roman god Mercury holding a bag of gold. * The obverse 1896 US Educational Series $2 bill shows an

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...

figure of Commerce who has a bag of money next to her, making it a picture of a bag of money on real money. * ''A Bag of Gold'' (1915), film starring Sidney Ainsworth * In 1974, Herb Block produced ''Herblock Special Report'', a book of political cartoons and text about Richard Nixon with some cartoons featuring money bags. * ''Money for Nothing'' (1993), comedy/crime film about Joey Coyle (John Cusack) who finds $1.2 million dollars in a bag in the middle of the street after it falls out of the back of an armored car * '' The Black Book'' (1993), crime novel by Ian Rankin about "Operation Moneybags", a police investigation aimed at putting a money-lender out of business * ''29 Palms'' (2002), direct-to-video film about a bag of money that affects the characters who possess it * Thai money bag (tung tong, or toong tong, ถุงทอง), a small, crispy, deep-fried pastry purse haped like a money bagwith various filling (circa unknown) * In the ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

'' in episode "

Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" is the eighth episode in the South Park season 9, ninth season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. The 133rd episode overall, it originally aired on Comedy Central in the United Sta ...

" (2005), a typically-

antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

Cartman tries to stop Kyle at gunpoint, demanding the latter give up his bag of "Jew gold". It turns out that Kyle not only has a bag of gold (which he wears round his neck at all times), but a decoy bag as well. * Dean Accessories makes a

handbag A handbag, commonly known as a purse in North American English, is a handled medium-to-large bag used to carry personal items. It has also been called a pocketbook in parts of the U.S. Terminology The term "purse" originally referred to a smal ...

from

recycle ReCycle is a music loop editor designed and developed by Sweden, Swedish software developers Propellerhead Software. It runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh based Personal Computer, PCs. The software debuted in 1994. The principal idea ...

d decommissioned US mint money bags.

In games

The 1976 television game show '' Break the Bank'' had a money bag as a space and ''

The Price Is Right ''The Price Is Right'' is an American television game show where contestants compete by guessing the prices of merchandise to win cash and prizes. A 1972 revival by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman of their The Price Is Right (1956 American game ...

'' has a pricing game called "Balance Game". In various games, money bags (or ''bags of gold'') tend to be used to represent

treasure Treasure (from from Greek ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions legally define what constit ...

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

. In

board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...

s like '' Dungeon!'' (1975) a money bag is a treasure card, in ''

Talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...

'' (1983) as a card, and in ''

Monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

'' as a pawn/piece introduced in 1999.

Video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

s such as '' Lock 'n' Chase'' (1981), ''

Bagman The term bagman (or bag man) has different meanings in different countries. One group of definitions centers on the idea of traveling. In British usage, "bagman" is a term for a traveling salesman, first known from 1808. In Australian usage, it ...

'' (1982), ''

Pitfall! ''Pitfall!'' is a video game developed by David Crane for the Atari 2600 and released in September 1982 by Activision. The player controls Pitfall Harry, who has a time limit of 20 minutes to seek treasure in a jungle. The game world is popu ...

'' (1982), '' Bank Panic'' (1984), '' Circus Charlie'' (1984), '' Gunfright'' (1985), ''

Roller Coaster A roller coaster is a type of list of amusement rides, amusement ride employing a form of elevated Railway track, railroad track that carries passengers on a roller coaster train, train through tight turns, steep slopes, and other elements, usua ...

'' (1985), ''

Arm Wrestling Arm wrestling (also spelled "armwrestling") is a sport in which two participants, facing each other with their bent elbows placed on a flat surface (usually a table) and hands firmly gripped, each attempt to "pin" their opponent's hand by forcing ...

'' (1985), the '' Castlevania'' series (1986-2010+),''Castlevania''
Mr. P's Castlevania Realm (hosted at The Video Game Museum, retrieved 12 August 2010) and '' Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood'' (2002) have money bags (or bags of gold) in them. As video game characters, Moneybags is a character in the ''Spyro the Dragon'' series and a boss named Moneybags in '' Dual Hearts''.

References

External links

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at

The Free Dictionary ''The Free Dictionary'' is an American online dictionary and encyclopedia that aggregates information from various sources. It is accessible in fourteen languages. History The Free Dictionary was launched in 2005 by Farlex. In the same year, ...