funny money

noun, Slang.
1.
counterfeit currency.
2.
money from undisclosed or questionable sources.
3.
currency of little value, as of a nation whose currency has been artificially inflated or recently devaluated.
4.
any foreign currency.
Origin
1940-45
Examples from the web for funny money
  • funny money won't do the trick because of the runaway inflation risk you mention.
  • And while pumping uncovered funny money into the patient may keep him alive, the market cant be fooled endlessly.
  • The only real difference is that it's easier to make funny money than it is to find new gold in the ground.
British Dictionary definitions for funny money

funny money

noun
1.
a sum of money so large as to be considered unreal
2.
counterfeit money
3.
(derogatory) foreign currency
Slang definitions & phrases for funny money

funny money

noun phrase

Worthless, counterfeit, or play money (1938+)


funny money in Technology


Notional units of computing time and/or storage handed to students at the beginning of a computer course; also called "play money" or "purple money" (in implicit opposition to real or "green" money).
In New Zealand and Germany the odd usage "paper money" has been recorded; in Germany, the particularly amusing synonym "transfer ruble" commemorates the funny money used for trade between COMECON countries back when the Soviet Bloc still existed.
When your funny money ran out, your account froze and you needed to go to a professor to get more. Fortunately, the plunging cost of time-sharing cycles has made this less common. The amounts allocated were almost invariably too small, even for the non-hackers who wanted to slide by with minimum work. In extreme cases, the practice led to small-scale black markets in bootlegged computer accounts. By extension, phantom money or quantity tickets of any kind used as a resource-allocation hack within a system.
[Jargon File]

Idioms and Phrases with funny money

funny money

Counterfeit money; also, money from an obscure or questionable source. For example, The police warned storekeepers that some funny money was being passed around town. This expression probably endures because of its rhyme. [ 1930s ]