The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 25, June 19, 2005, Article 13

VOCABULARY WORD: SPONDULIX

It's been a while since we had a vocabulary word to discuss.
The following item from the A Word A Day mailing list is
a slang term for money I wasn't familiar with:

"spondulicks also spondulix (spon-DOO-liks) noun

Money; cash.

[Of unknown origin.]

It could only be a sign of money's popularity that there are
numerous slang terms to describe it. Among others, there
are moola, buck, greenback (from the color of the US
currency), simoleon, dead presidents (from the pictures
of US presidents on currency notes), bean, and dough
(referring to the buying of food). Counterfeit money could
then very well be sourdough.

"Get yourself another tasty helping, as long as you are in
possession of the requisite spondulicks."
Salman Rushdie; The Ground Beneath Her Feet;
Picador Books; 2000."

spondulicks.html

[Maybe the term just isn't popular in my part of the
world, but I'd never heard of this one. I had seen it
before, but remained clueless until now. "The Elusive
Spondulix" was the business name of a dealer I saw at
a coin show. An Internet search tells me this was
probably Tom Culhane of Union, NJ. From his web
site:

"The company name, The Elusive Spondulix, may have
raised your sesquipedalian curiosity. No don't run for
your 'Funk & Wagner', let me elucidate.

Obviously, Elusive means hard to find or locate; Spondulix,
the word people always question me about at coin shows,
is neither latin nor greek. I can't speak any language other
than english. Spondulix is a word which entered the english
language from American slang of the 1800's. During this
time African and West Indies Cowry-Shell money, made
of gold, was on display at the Philadelphia Mint.

Referred to as Spondu, the slang, Spondulix, eventually
entered the english language as another word for coin or
money. The word has also been spelled ending both with
Lics and Licks, but the Lix ending is the more generally
accepted spelling."

More

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  Wayne Homren, Editor

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