[f. THREE + PENCE, collective pl. of PENNY.]
1. A sum of money equal in value to three pennies.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, II. i. What monstrous … circumstance Is here, to get some three or four gazettes, Some three-pence in the whole!
1701. Cibber, Love makes Man, V. ii. Ang.… Fortune, once again, is kind; but how it comes about— D. Lew. Does not signify Three pence.
1849. Sk. Nat. Hist., Mammalia, IV. 12. In Pennsylvania an old law existed offering threepence a head for every squirrel destroyed.
2. A silver coin of this value; a threepenny piece.
(Now the smallest silver coin of Great Britain.)
1589. Hay any Work (1844), 11. A round threepence serueth the turn.
1675. Lond. Gaz., No. 987/4. One Purse…, and therein … about 18 new Groats, Three-pences, and Two-pences.
1712–3. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 23 Jan. Dr. Pratt and I … with the Bishop of Clogher,… played at ombre for threepences.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 235. I would venture the lowest stake of gentility, a silver three-pence, that [etc.].
1898. G. B. Rawlings, Brit. Coinage, 53. Edward VI coined … a silver crown, half-crown, sixpence, and threepence.
