Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to not care at all.

a.1540		Doctour Doubble Ale in Hazlitt Early Popular Poetry III 306: He careth not a pyn, How much ther be wythin, So he the pot may wyn .
1568		Hist. of Jacob and Esau V vi: I set not a strawe by you nor a pinne.
1576		Tyde taryeth no Man in Collier (1863) II 42: For her mother she cares not a pin: / Now all her mind is a husband to win. [Ibid.] 52: Tush! for preachinge I passe not a pin .
1577		Misogonus in Farmer (1906) II v: Do your best and your worst, I care not a pin for you.
c.1595		Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost IV iii: I would not care a pin if the other three were in.
1615		Merrie Dialogue Between Band, Cuffe, and Ruffe B: Sfoote Ruffe careth not a pinne for her.
c.1623		‘The Young Man’s Careless Wooing’ in Wardroper (1969) 101: Yet you would say, if you knew all within, / That shitten-come-shites the beginning of love is. / And for her favour I care not a pin.
1633		S. Marmion Fine Companion III v: I [...] care not a pinne, for all the power of Greece.
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 24 8–15 Nov. 206: And first at In speech my part Ile begin, / Where for civill talk Ile care not a pin.
1661		Antidote Against Melancholy in Ebsworth Choyce Drollery (1876) 113: Yet I care not a pin, For I see no such sin.
1662–3		‘The Ranting Wanton’s Resolution’ in Ebsworth Bagford Ballads (1880) 480: Let them laugh that win, / I care not a pin.
1670		‘A Young Man put to his Shifts’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 180: As for my own part, I value it not a pin.
1675		Wycherley Country-Wife III i: Faith, dear, not that I care one pin for their talk there.
c.1681		‘A Serious Dicourse’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1891) VII:2 254: I will forsake all my kin, my father and mother / I value not a pin, or any other.
1691		‘A Song of Nothing’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 66: ’Tis nothing I court, yet Nothing I slight, / Nor care I a pin, if I get Nothing by’t.
1700		‘Ballad on the Old Proverbs’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy II 112: Yet you would say, if you knew all within, / Shitten come Shite the beginning of Love is, / And for her Flavour I care not a pin.
c.1707		‘Rise Bonny Kate’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 198: For losses I care not a pin.
a.1720		‘She Met with a Country-Man’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) IV 258: But as for John of the Green, / I care not a Pin for him.
1732		Harlot’s Progress 9: My Dear, said she, and strok’d her Chin, / I mind the Letter not a Pin.
1765		H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 104: And what other Folks say we need not care a Pin.
1777		Sheridan School For Scandal III i: ’Tis evident you never cared a pin for me.
1779		Mme D’Arblay Diary and Letters (1904) I 165: I would not give a pin for the advice.
1780		in F. Moore Songs and Ballads of the Amer. Revolution (1855) 304: With purpose firm, though slender ranks, / Nor car’d a pin for Wayne.
1790		‘Bumper Allnight. Esquire’ Honest Fellow 38: And believe me, I do not regard you a pin.
1793		Prince Hoare Prize II i: I care not a pin for the ladies.
1801		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Orson and Ellen’ Works (1801) V 347: He did not care a pin.
1818		Byron Beppo xxxv: No one notices, nor cares a pin.
1826		Cumberland Pacquet 12 Dec. 4/5: Many would not care a pin / To lose at cards a fortnight’s hewing.
1830		Egan Finish to the Adventures of Tom and Jerry (1889) 192: I do not care a pin [...] as to the look of the thing.
1838		‘The Life and Death of Dando’ in C. Hindley James Catnach 1878 336: For prisons, he’d not care a pin.
1846		D. Jerrold Mrs. Caudle’s Curtain Lectures 76: Everybody could see that you didn’t care a pin for me.
1854		F. Smedley Harry Coverdale’s Courtship 127: He did not care a pin.
1854		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Aug. 94/1: [I]t must be taken for granted that they care not a pin for all the trouble.
1862		J.A. Hardwick ‘That’s Not Right’ Prince of Wales’ Own Song Book 43: But they don’t care a pin: we may die and be —.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 139: They don’t care a pin’s head for beer, and, indeed, never take a drop of it.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 70: I wouldn’t give a pin for them little ‘Lalla Rookhs’ that’s goin’ now.
1881		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 21 June 7/6: The gaols now is just awful. I usen’t to care a pin for twenty-one days [...] but now...
1887		E. Custer Tenting on the Plains (rev. edn 1895) 162: I go for the dog, the wise old dog, / That knowingly takes his ease [...] Cares not a pin, in his wise old head, / For either dog in the fight.
1891		Kipling ‘The Man Who Could Write’ Barrack Room Ballads and Other Verses (1899) 45: Boanerges Blitzen didn’t care a pin.
1893		Orleans Cty Monitor (Barton, VT) 2 Oct. 6/2: I don’t care a pin for your old songs.
1894		A. Hope Dolly Dialogues 21: I don’t care a pin for your opinion.
1901		‘Miles Franklin’ My Brilliant Career 201: I have only flirted to try and see if you cared, but you didn’t care a pin.
1908		C. Hamilton Diana of Dobson’s in Morgan Years Between (1994) 17: I don’t really care a row of brass pins.
1908		Magnet 22 Feb. 11: For Wharton he did not care a pin.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 338: But not a pin cared Ciss.
1927		W.S. Maugham Letter I i: I don’t care a row of pins what you think about me.
1945		B. Charles 4 Dec. diary in Garfield Our Hidden Lives (2004) 141: I have never cared a row of pins what people thought about me.
1975		E. Brady All in! All in! 175: I care not, I care not, / I care not a pin.