Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(Aus./Irish) a pre-decimalization penny.

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 241: Just go and get a shave now, Jim. I’ll give you a wing [penny], if you will.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 14 Dec. 1/2: [He] found himself charged ‘eighteen wing’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 404: Up to you, matey. Out with the oof. Two bar and a wing.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 196: Only ninepence in it, so there’s a wing missin’ – who’s shy?
c.1940–5		in ‘Myles na gCopaleen’ Best of Myles (1968) 291: Shelling out a wing to that lad back there. You must be bats.
1948		J. O’Connor Come Day – Go Day (1984) 11: Wait’ll I see if I have an odd wing on me somewhere. Here! He pressed a penny into each of the boys’ hands.
1969		(ref. to 1930s) R. Greacen Even without Irene 26: Wheedlers who could take the last ‘wing’ from a rawly innocent country lad.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 145: But he gives us each a ‘wing.’.
1995		P. O’Keeffe Down Cobbled Streets, A Liberties Childhood 140: ‘Care to earn a wing, son?’ the gamblers would ask a boy.