a couple three

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

Mark cited:

>5 up, 7 down originating in southeast Michigan in the 1960's, the term means >a uncertain quantity, i.e. It may be two (but rarely is), it could be three >but is usually more, but is seldom as much as "quite a few". 
>I told her a couple three times to get down off the bar or put her panties >back on before they throw us out.

Hey, that's where I grew up! ...and that's when I heard it. 
However, the contexts led me to believe that it is a working-class 
term used from time immemorial all over the US. (I used my 
Reichian orgonomic language sense to discern this)
it's obviously a colorfulization of "2 or three" - that one
certainly can't be new to anybody?  
the guys I heard say it were colorful speakers, people who
may have also used the term "selunoid", and "misconscrew"