row of pins

From the disposable rows of pins used in sewing.

• "“[…] they wouldn’t let us have even a row of pins without the money for ’em—no, not if we was to drop down dead for want of bread in their shops.”"
• "He knew that big nations did not care a row of pins for small nations, but only used them as pawns, and he knew that the role of a pawn in a game is, too often, to be taken."
• "As far as the admissions tax is concerned, it doesn’t amount to a row of pins anyway."

• hill of beans