Collecting together
money from your pockets, bag, around the house or down the back of the settee. Usually collected together to buy some small item like a pint of milk or a loaf of sliced bread. Therefore all the pennies and small change in copper will have an inordinate value.
May be used as a slightly offensive word if you have a group of
people pooling all their
money to buy a cheap bottle of wine between them or some similar object of desire.
Peter Stringfellow (The king of
strip clubs) said recently 'The worst customers we have in here are groups of women (hen parties). They are
always coppering together to buy one male
stripper between them'.