Green’s Dictionary of Slang

threepence; the smallest coin.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Threpps c. Three-pence.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Threpps, threepence.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: Threps. Threepence.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1796].
1834		W.G. Simms Guy Rivers II 108: He rewarded [him] with a thrip (the smallest silver coin known in the southern currency — the five cent issue excepted).
1848		‘Major Jones’ Sketches of Travel 76: They was jest the same kind of boxes that we git two for a thrip in Georgia.
1849		G.G. Foster N.Y. in Slices 109: These Pills were put up in packages of three boxes each, numbered one, two, and threp.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 108: THRUPS, threepence.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. [as cit. 1859].
1873		Sl. Dict.
1881		J.C. Harris Uncle Remus 221: I’ll hunt ’roun’ in my cloze an’ see ef I can’t run out a thrip er two fer you.
1888		Taunton Courier 7 Mar. 3/3: ‘Thrup,’ she repeated, and held for the palm of her other hand.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 85: Thrups, three pence.
1904		W. Churchill The Crossing 257: Kentucky can go to the devil, [...] and not a thrip do they care.
1914		E. Wittmann ‘Clipped Words’ in DN IV:ii 121: threp, (thrip or threps) Threepence.
1926		Eve. Teleg. 13 July 1/3: The remainder mostly in what Forfar parlance calls ‘thrups,’ otherwise threepenny pieces.