The traditional material for wallets is leather or fabric
The traditional material for wallets is leather or fabric, but many other flexible flat sheet materials can be used in their fabrication. Non-woven textiles such as Tyvek are used, sometimes including reuse of waterproof maps printed on that material. Woven metals, such as fine mesh made of copper or stainless steel have been incorporated into wallets that are promoted as having electromagnetic shielding properties to protect against unauthorized scanning of embedded NFC & RFID tags. Do-it-yourself websites such as Instructables feature many projects for making wallets out of materials such as denim, Kevlar, or duct tape.
Some wallets, particularly in Europe where larger value coins are prevalent, contain a coin purse compartment. Some wallets have built-in clasps or bands to keep them closed. As European banknotes, such as euros and pounds, are typically larger than American banknotes in size, they do not fit in some smaller American wallets. The term wallet is also used as a synecdoche to refer to an individual's overall personal budget. One of the definitions of "syndecdoche", by Sasse, uses a wallet reference as an example of the meaning of the term ("an abbreviated speech in which the containing vessel is mentioned instead of its contents"), such as when a person holds up their wallet to a person asking for money, while saying "here is $100". A wallet is also used as an example in a definition for the related rhetorical device of metonymy: "If we cannot strike offenders in the heart, let us strike them in the wallet.
Charon's obols, a death custom originating in ancient Greece whereby a coin is placed with a corpse, from the 3rd and 4th centuries AD in Western Europe, were often found in pouches, making them money pouches. From the Middle Ages to around 1900, Rottweiler dogs were used by travelling butchers at markets to guard money pouches tied around their necks. Beginning in the 14th century, purses of money (panakizhi) were awarded to scholars during the Revathi Pattathanam, an annual assembly of scholars held in Kerala, India. In 16th century feudal Japan, samurai wore uchi-bukuro ('money purses') around the waist or neck. In 1620, pediatric tracheotomy was unheard of until a boy tried to hide a bag of gold by swallowing it. It became lodged in his esophagus and blocked his trachea. The tracheotomy allowed the surgeon to manipulate the bag, and it passed through his system. In September 1864, Rose O'Neal Greenhow, a Confederate agent, drowned with a bag of gold around her neck after leaving the Condor (a British blockade runner ship) in a boat.
A wealthy person can have the nickname "moneybag" (or "moneybags"). Marcus Licinius Crassus (c. 115-53 BC), a leading Roman politician in his day, was known in Rome as Dives, meaning "the Rich" or "Moneybags". Ivan I of Moscow ("Ivan the Moneybag") was a Russian Grand Duke of Moscow from 1328-1341 who was famous for being generous with his wealth. American cardinal Francis Spellman (1889–1967) was sometimes called "Cardinal Moneybags" in his later life, while Chicago mobster and racketeer Murray Humphreys (1899–1965) was referred to as "Mr. Moneybags" by his friends. Miss Moneybags (played by Edna Purviance) is a fictional character in the 1915 Charlie Chaplin silent comedy film The Count. James Edward "Baron of Edgerton" Hanson's (1922–2004) billion-dollar empire earned him the nickname "Lord Moneybags". Another fictional character, Victor Newman (Eric Braeden) of The Young and the Restless soap opera, has also been called "Moneybags".