C.W. Witham: Set design forThe Leather Patch, 1886, a play by Edward "Ned" Harrigan. The Leather Patch was a typical Harrigan comedy of low life set in the notorious "Five Points," the juncture of Baxter, Worth, and Park Streets--New York's roughest neighborhood. The plot involved a pair of pants into which money had been sewn under a leather patch.
Source: Jerry E. Patterson,The City of New York (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.) 1978. http://www.mcny.org/prev2.htm