Dictionary

heads or harps en · NOUN

Etymology

Copper coins minted in Georgian Ireland had the head of the British monarch on the obverse and the Irish harp on the reverse. The phrase "heads or harps" remained common even after 1823, when Irish minting ceased and only British coinage circulated; it was still current when the Irish Free State restored the harp on its newly introduced coins in 1927.

Meanings

1. (Ireland, uncountable) heads or tails
   • ...he took out his purse, and, extracting half-a-crown, threw it up to the ceiling, saying, “Well, Dot—head or harp? If you’re right, you have them.” “Harp,” cried Dot. They both examined the coin. “They’re yours,” said Frank, with much solemnity... 1848, Anthony Trollope, “XVI Brien Boru”, in The Kellys and the O'Kellys, volume II, London: Henry Colburne, page 55:
   • A quarrel happened between two shoeblacks, who were playing at what in England is called pitch farthing, or heads and tails, and in Ireland, head or harp. 1802, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Maria Edgeworth, “The Dublin Shoeblack”, in Essay on Irish Bulls, London: J. Johnson, page 128:
   • There was a family of peasants who never could make up their minds; they decided everything by a toss-up. The head of the family had settled the amount of dowry he got with his wife by ‘heads or harps,’ and when he died he left his land to be tossed for by his two sons. John P. Frayne, editor (1970), Uncollected prose by W. B. Yeats, volume 1, Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 28
   • He looked up as they came nearer. ‘Hey, lads. Lookin’ for a game?’ ‘A game?’ Victor said. ‘Pitch an’ toss.’ He spun the ha’penny, watched it fall between two broken pieces of brick and cocked his foxy head at the two boys. ‘Heads or harps?’ ‘Harps,’ Victor said. ‘You win,’ Denis Doyle said. 1972, Brian Cleeve, Cry of morning, London: Corgi, →ISBN, page 210:
   • JIMMY. Heads or harps? TONY. Heads. JIMMY. (Tosses the coin onto the back of his hand.) Hard luck. Ha ha ha. 1988, Billy Roche, “A Handful of Stars; Act 1; Scene 1”, in The Wexford Trilogy, →ISBN:
   • Christina twirls on straps like a spinning coin that hasn’t decided if it will land on heads or harps. 2019 September 16, Tom Swift, “Winging It”, in RTÉ Culture, RTÉ:
   • He dearly loves to smoke cigarettes and many of them, and he has an insurmountable weakness for the recondite mysteries of "Pitch and Toss," and when he has mastered the intricacies of the game, can foretell by repeatedly turning a copper in his hand while the stakes are revolving in the air whether they will settle on the ground heads or harps up. 1905 August 17, “The News-Vendor”, in The Weekly Irish Times, Dublin, page 6:

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