From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Pelf \Pelf\ (p[e^]lf), n. [OE. pelfir booty, OF. pelfre, akin to
pelfrer to plunder, and perh. to E. pillage. Cf. Pilfer.]
Money; riches; lucre; gain; -- generally conveying the idea
of something ill-gotten or worthless. It has no plural.
"Mucky pelf." --Spenser. "Paltry pelf." --Burke.
[1913 Webster]
Can their pelf prosper, not got by valor or industry?
--Fuller.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
pelf
n 1: informal terms for money [syn: boodle, bread,
cabbage, clams, dinero, dough, gelt, kale,
lettuce, lolly, lucre, loot, moolah, pelf,
scratch, shekels, simoleons, sugar, wampum]