pitch-penny

Phil was astonished at the gentleness of the reproof he received for being discovered with a crowd of young vagabonds playing pitch-penny in my very office; but I was too broken in spirit to administer justice on him -- how could I expect him to be true when all others were faithless?

The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862 Devoted to Literature and National Policy Various

He was two years out of prison, dining where he could, sleeping in night lodging-houses and sometimes in lime-kilns, and taking part with his fellows in interminable games of pitch-penny on the boulevards near the barriers: He wore a greasy cap on the back of his head, carpet slippers, and a short white blouse.

Ten Tales Fran��ois Copp��e 1875

Scattered about over the blackish sward were many groups of ghouls and variously colored demons, some playing pitch-penny with ancient coins, and others lying asleep on the ground.

Ting-a-ling Frank Richard Stockton 1868

Still shuffling among the crowd, now and then he would pause, throwing back his head and opening his mouth like an elephant for tossed apples at a menagerie; when, making a space before him, people would have a bout at a strange sort of pitch-penny game, the cripple's mouth being at once target and purse, and he hailing each expertly-caught copper with a cracked bravura from his tambourine.

The Confidence-Man 1857

Still shuffling among the crowd, now and then he would pause, throwing back his head and, opening his mouth like an elephant for tossed apples at a menagerie; when, making a space before him, people would have a bout at a strange sort of pitch-penny game, the cripple's mouth being at once target and purse, and he hailing each expertly-caught copper with a cracked bravura from his tambourine.

The Confidence-Man Herman Melville 1855

Except that he was talking about risking all ones own wealth on one game of pitch-and-toss (what Americans call pitch-penny), not the bank's/shareholders '/taxpayers' wealth.

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