How did the words bread, cheese, and dough come to mean money?

Hello Steemians! As some of you might know the usage of the word dough/bread and cheese/cheddar as slang for money is common in pop music and contemporary culture. Think of the Notorious B.I.G’s song “I Love the Dough” etc

There’s not much official information on how the usage of dough and bread for money was derived, but there’s evidence that the word was in usage over a hundred years ago (no Steemit that time. Yikes!!)

I think that most people will agree though that if you think of bread being a type of food and food being a very necessary constituent of life, then you can begin to see the bigger picture. The more dough, the better Yo!!

The usage of cheese or cheddar most probably comes from the phrase “government cheese” which was slang for a food coupon benefit handed out by the US government in the late 1900’s. In fact the term “government cheese” later came to mean any benefit or hand-out received by people in that time (money included). The term was shortened to “cheese” and, well, Bob’s your Uncle!!

Touch my cheddar, feel my Beretta
(the Notorious B.I.G., “Warning”)

Peace out Steemians :)

(references: Oxford Dictionaries online)