A night or so ago, when I was re-telling that joke of mine about the Chinese Genie, it suddenly occurred to me that, possibly, the term "cold hard cash" might be older than I think it is (I associate it with being a gangster like term from no earlier than the 1930's) and, if it is, it may have originally meant someone expected to be paid in specie (coins whose value is determined via their precious metal content) as opposed to paper money (that was a pre-requisite for some transactions in American history, such as land sales, by Federal law.