A money bag (or money sack) is a bag normally used to hold and transport coins and banknotes, often closed with a drawstring.[1] 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.
According to the account given in the Bible's Gospel of John, Judas Iscariot carried the disciples' money bag.[2]
During the Roman era, the Legio IV Scythica was camped in Zeugma, a city of Commagene (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 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.[3]
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, 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 and blocked his trachea. The tracheotomy allowed the surgeon to manipulate the bag, and it passed through his system.[4]
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.
A wealthy person can have the nickname "moneybag" (or "moneybags").[5] [6]
Marcus Licinius Crassus (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 (1889–1967) was sometimes called "Cardinal Moneybags" in his later life, while Chicago mobster and racketeer Murray Humphreys (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) 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".
Money bags have been represented in art and culture throughout human history, including paintings, literature, film, television, games, and even food.
The 1976 television game show Break the Bank had a money bag as a space and The Price Is Right has a pricing game called "Balance Game".
In various games, money bags (or bags of gold) tend to be used to represent treasure or points. In board games like Dungeon! (1975) a money bag is a treasure card, in Talisman (1983) as a card, and in Monopoly as a pawn/piece introduced in 1999.[13]
Video games such as Lock 'n' Chase (1981), Bagman (1982), Pitfall! (1982), Bank Panic (1984), Circus Charlie (1984), Gunfright (1985), Roller Coaster (1985), Arm Wrestling (1985), the Castlevania series (1986-2010+),[14] and (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.