1865 H. Kingsley Hillyars & Burtons xlii A young man as has owed me a Joey.

1876 E. Hawkins Silver Coins Eng. 421 In 1836 it was resolved to issue groats for general circulation... The legend, four pence..These pieces are said to have owed their existence to the pressing instance of Mr. [Joseph] Hume, from whence they for some time bore the nick-name of Joeys.

1884 R. D. Blackmore Hist. Sir T. Upmore I. 288 Here is the eightpence—a couple of Joeys, as you call them.

1936 ‘G. Orwell’ Keep Aspidistra Flying i. 7 A Joey. He took out the miserable little threepenny-bit.

1945 S. J. Baker Austral. Lang. v. 109 3d.,..joey.

1965 Australasian Post (Melbourne) 4 Mar. 46 Threepence, ‘joe’ or ‘joey’, though these..two words are now rarely heard. (A ‘joey’ was originally London slang for a fourpenny bit; and later was transferred to the English threepence).

1966 F. Shaw et al. Lern Yerself Scouse 33 Joey, threepence.

1839 W. H. Leigh Reconnoitering Voy. 93–4 Here [i.e. in Kangaroo Island] is also the wallaba... The young of the animal is called by the islanders a joè.

1845 T. Moore Tasman. Rhymings (1860) 15 He was a ‘joey’ which, in truth, Means nothing more than that the youth Who claims a Kangaroo descent Is by that nomenclature meant.

1866 Cornhill Mag. Dec. 762 Large flocks of kangaroo..the larger males..towered above the flying bucks, flying does and joeys, the half-grown bucks, does, and young ones.

1887 All Year Round 30 July (Farmer) Joey..is applied indifferently to a puppy, or a kitten, or a child, while a wood-and-water-joey is a hanger about hotels, and a doer of odd jobs.

1896 G. B. Shaw in Sat. Rev. 25 Apr. 426/2 Its [sc. philosophic comedy's] common Joeys with red-hot poker and sausages.

1926 Amer. Speech Feb. 283/2 I'm through with bein' a joey. Gettin' too old, thought I would never troupe again.

1962 D. H. Laurence in G. B. Shaw Platform & Pulpit p. xiii Thus was created a paradox of the public simultaneously decrying Shaw for playing a ‘Joey’ rôle and seeking desperately to set a jester's cap upon his head.

1973 J. Wainwright Devil you Don't 121 A pensioner—gnarled hand gripping a walking-stick, grey hair peeping from beneath an old-fashioned flat cap, pullover, frayed jacket and baggy trousers—like a Joey, without make-up.