Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) used of something considered unimportant or worthless; …in/on the subway is a synon. use.

1946		N.Y. Times 22 Mar. 30: Victory in the Grapefruit Circuit usually doesn’t mean much. That and a nickel still will get you on the subway.
1951		N.Y. Times 30 May 21: That [i.e. a boxing championship] and a dime will get either of them in the subway.
1973		D.A. Myers Open education Re-Examined 44: As one of the custodians in the Program put it, ‘That and a dime will get you a cup of coffee.’.
1983		E. Mayerson No Enemy But Time 342: ‘That and a dime will get me a cup of coffee.’ Mickey pulled her hand away.
2002		Mercury News 26 Sept. at SiliconValley.com 🌐 ‘A couple of things I’ve learned, you always try to be the best you can be,’ he said. ‘You can always blame someone else. But that and a dime will get you a cup of coffee.’.
2003		Mad mag. Sept. 30: Yeah, that and a buck-fifty will get me on the subway.
2003		G. Bartos-Pool Odd Man Ch. 11 🌐 Donovan reached in a box and pulled out a sheet of paper. ‘Here’s a souvenir. A copy of one of the letters I sent to him. My China theory. That and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee back in Ohio.’.
2003		PressDemocrat.com 12 Oct. 🌐 ‘Forty-eight percent of the vote is not a mandate ... I think he (Schwarzenegger) had a good, decisive victory. That and a quarter will get you a cup of coffee.’ — Democratic Senate leader John Burton.