Originally slang for a sawhorse, fashioned iin the 18th century by lashing together two pieces of wood into an "X" shape. With an X-shaped support at each of two ends, the contraption served to hold wood for cutting.
With the advent of the U.S. 10 dollar
bill, which bears the Roman numeral X, "sawbuck" became slang for the
bill, as people associated the shape with the sawhorse. The slang term "
buck" originated in the mid-19th century in reference to the dollar.
In the mid-1900s "sawbuck" became street slang, apparently originating in Chicago, for a 10-dollar bag of
marijuana. Since 1985 or so, the term has referred to a 10-dollar "
bag" (actual bag or any kind of package) of any street drug (heroin, crack cocaine,
marijuana, etc.).
Occasionally, addicts use the term sawbuck to refer to 10 dollars, particularly when they intend to use the
money to purchase drugs (e.g., "Borrow me a sawbuck so i can get my sick off").
"Sawbuck" is also the name of a Chicago-based media production company that focuses on documentary films on the street-level drug world.
