subs. (thieves’).—1. A coin showing either two heads or two tails; a PONY (q.v.).
1828. G. SMEETON, Doings in London, p. 40. Breslaw could never have done more upon cards than he could do with a pair of GRAYS (gaffing-coins).
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, Vol. II., p. 154. Some, if they can, will cheat, by means of a halfpenny with a head or a tail on both sides, called a GRAY.
1868. Temple Bar, Vol. XXIV., p. 539. They have a penny with two heads or two tails on it, which they call a GREY, and of course they can easily dupe flats from the country. How do they call it a GREY, I wonder? I suppose they have named it after Sir George Grey because he was a two-faced bloke.
2. (common).—See GRAYBACK, sense 1.
3. In pl. (colloquial).—Yawning; listlessness. Cf., BLUES.
