Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also babee, bawbee, bawbie) a halfpenny, or penny; also attrib.

1604		Marston Malcontent induction: I have heard of a fellow would offer to lay a hundred-pound wager, that was not worth five bawbees.
1607		G. Wilkins Miseries of an Enforced Marriage Act III: Not a Scots baubee (by this hand) to bless us with.
1661		‘Peter Aretine’ Strange Newes title: Her Cabinet Unlock’d [...] With the exact manner of conveighing St Jameses Bawbyes to St Bartholemews-Fair.
1667		J. Lacey Sauny the Scot II i: Is’e ne give yea a Bawbee for your Luggs.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1754		E. Burt Letters from Scotland I 144: Before the Union, they never presumed to ask for more than a Bodle (or the sixth Part of a Penny), but now they beg for a Baubee (or Halfpenny).
1768		A. Ross Helenore in Wattie Scot. Works (1938) 65: She heard a weerd-wife tell, / That thro’ the cuintray telling fortunes yeed, An’ at babees an’ placks came wond’rous speed.
1770		D. Gunston (ed.) Jemmy Twitcher’s Jests 72: I pit my hand intull my bricks, to feel for money [...] but the deel a bawbie cou’d I find.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Bawbee. (Scotch) A halfpenny.
1787		Burns Come Boat me o’er to Charlie in Works (1842) 153/1: I’ll gie Joe Ross another bawbee, To boat me o’er to Charlie.
1790		W. Perry Only Sure Guide 155: Baubee, a halfpenny.
c.1805		‘Jenny’s Bawbee’ Jovial Songster 105: He thought to pay what he was awn, / Wi’ Jenny’s Bawbee.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1822		J. Galt Sir Andrew Wylie II 283: That’s a braw leddy, and ye’ll get a bawbee to buy an apple at the fair.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc.
1829		Life and Death of Robert Kirkwood 6: Others clubbed their three bawbees for gill after gill, and sat bousing till all was done.
1834		Satirist (London) 12 Jan. 11/3: Madam had not a Scotch baubee to 'bestow upon her; and as for the General that is to.he, he, poor soul, has not a rupee to cross himself with!
1835		Duncombe Dens of London 18: The Scotchman [...] soon saw that to set up prudence in the midst of wanton waste, was a sure and ready way to accumulate the bawbees.
1840		London Mag. Feb. 11/1: ‘Ha’e ye got bawbees enough in your breeks to give me change of a saxpence’.
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 247: Andy indeed! – out o’ place, and without a bawbee to bless himself with?
1846		D. Corcoran Pickings from N.O. Picayune 66: I hadn’t a single baubee to get my lodgings.
1858		‘Shadow’ Midnight Scenes 33: Hurrying along ‘one more unfortunate’ is met; hunger and vice have committed ravages upon her pale haggard countenance. ‘Jist a bawbee, sir,’ she says [...] ‘I’ve tasted naething the day’ [Ibid.] 54: ‘I’ve got three-bawbees, an’ I want ither three before I gang hame’.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 74/2: On the mantlepiece [...] a few penny pictures and ‘bawbee stookeys’ intermixed with snarls of thread.
1877		‘Andro & his Cutty Gun’ Laughing Songster 14: But, cunning carline that she was, / She gart me birle my bawbie.
1881		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 18 July 2/6: A half-penny [...] may find the following; ‘bawbees,’ ‘browns,’ ‘camden town,’ ‘coppers,’ ‘ flatch,’ ‘gray,’ ‘madge.’ ‘make,’ ‘mag or maga,’ ‘posh,’ and ‘rap’.
1887		in G.D. Atkin House Scraps 161: When Major P--- has his lunch, / Bang goes a bawbee, O!
1890		Dead Bird (Sydney) 9 Aug. 2/4: One of the ‘haud-fast-to-the-bawbees’ high functionaries of Dundee was often commented upon by passers-by as to his parsimonious habits.
1895		J. Greenwood Behind A Bus 127: ‘Ye’ll no keep the bawbee, so I tell ye.’ So I penitently refunded the penny.
1900		Sporting Times 3 Mar. 1/1: There is a story told of two footpads who waylaid a Scotchman, and, after a terrific struggle, they overpowered him, and all that they found on him was a bawbee.
1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 12 Oct. 1/2: One thrifty old cuss [...] has always got one eye on the bowl and the other on the chance of making a bawbee.
1922		Dundee Eve. Teleg. 19 July 2/4: [A] halfpenny is a ‘brown’ or a ‘madzer (pronounced ‘medzer’), ‘saltee’ [...] ‘mag,’ ‘posh,’ ‘bawbee,’ or ‘rap’.
1935		E.F. Benson Mapp and Lucia (1984) 106: As to the expense of that, if you approve [...] put another baubee on the price of admission.
1992		I. Rankin Wolfman 84: Christ, he could have saved himself a few bawbees.

2. (also bawbee) money in general.

1848		Sinks of London Laid Open 16: A sure and ready way to accumulate the bawbees.
1850		Glasgow Gaz. 2 Nov. 1/3: The bawbees came tumbling into his hands pretty frequently.
1872		Belfast News Letter 16 Dec. 4/6: We should have thought it clear, from his tight grip o’ the baubees.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Feb. 5/4: He knew how to make and to take care of the bawbees, and his son knows how to put them to their right use.
1889		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 23 Feb. 28/1: A reader asks if it is correct that artistes have to bide a wee for the bawbees after putting in a turn at the new club.
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ Get Next 25: There we sat, two sad boys without a baubee in the jeans.
1952		‘Josephine Tey’ Singing Sands 101: She should have saved her breath and her bawbees, poor lady.
2013		T. Black Ringer [ebook] n.p.: See those cows, all about the bawbees, all about the showing off the big house and the big motor.

3. (US) a worthless trifle.

1906

J.W. Carr ‘Words from Northwest Arkansas’ in DN III:ii 126: baubee, n. A trifle. ‘It isn’t worth a baubee.’.