Shilling
The shilling was an English coin first issued in 1548 for
Henry VIII, although arguably the testoon issued about 1487 for
Henry VII was the first English shilling. These English issues were preceded by Scots coins, groats valued at twelvepence, issued in the reign of James III.
Encyclopedia
The
shilling was an English coin first issued in 1548 for
Henry VIII, although arguably the testoon issued about 1487 for
Henry VII was the first English shilling. These English issues were preceded by Scots coins, groats valued at twelvepence, issued in the reign of James III.
History
Before
decimalisation in 1971, a shilling had a value of 12d , and was equal to 1/20th of a
pound: there were 240 pence to the pound. Post-decimalisation, "shilling" refers to the 5p coin, which is still worth 1/20th of a pound, because there are 100 new pence in a pound.
The name shilling is believed to come from the old Scandinavian word
skilling, meaning a division, or a mark on a stick.
The abbreviation for shilling is "s", from the Latin
solidus, the name of a
Roman coin. Often it was written informally or printed with a slash,
e.g., "1/6" as 1 shilling and sixpence, or when there were no pence with a slash then a hyphen,
e.g., "11/-". Quite often a triangular shape or
apostrophe would be used to give a neater appearance,
e.g., "1'6" and "11'-".
During the reign of
Queen Elizabeth II shillings were minted featuring both the English "three lions", technically
three leopards couchant, coat of arms, and the Scottish
lion rampant coat of arms .
A slang name for a shilling was a "bob" .
To "take the King's shilling" was to enlist in the army or navy, a phrase dating back to the early 1800s; specifically in the context of kissing the image of the sovereign in general, a shilling being a convenient object carrying the likeness. Supposedly the practice of
press gangs whereby they would drop a shilling into a
tankard, and thus trick the unwary patron to touch his lips to the shilling, supposedly enough to submit to conscription, led to the development of glass bottomed tankards. In a modern context, to say someone has "taken the King's shilling" implies in a derogatory way that they are in the pocket of another.
To "cut someone off without a shilling" means to disinherit.
The shilling coin issued in most of the twentieth century was virtually identical in size and weight to the German 1
Deutsche Mark coin . This reflected the pre-First World War exchange rate of 20 marks to one pound; by the end of the shilling's circulation, the mark was worth six times as much.
Withdrawal
The last shillings issued for circulation were dated 1966, although proofs were issued as part of a collectors' set dated 1970. From 1968 new decimal coins, "
five new pence" with the same weight and specifications, started to replace shillings. Shillings remained in circulation alongside the 5p coins until 1990, when a new, smaller, 5p coin was produced.
Irish shillings
See also: Irish shilling coinIn
Ireland, the shilling was issued as "scilling" in
Irish language. They had kept the original 12d value on their shilling. It was issued until 1969, and after 1971, like Britain, the general public often used a shilling to pay 5p to shops, etc. When the
Central Bank of Ireland issued a smaller 5p piece, the shilling was withdrawn in 1992. They remain, like all obsolete Irish coinage, redeemable at the central bank.
Australian shillings
The
Australian Shillings were first issued in 1910, with the Australian
Coat of Arms on the reverse and King Edward VII on the face. The Coat of Arms design was retained through the reign of King George V until a new ram's head design was introduced for the coins of George VI. This design continued until the last year of issue in 1963. In 1966 Australia's currency was decimalised and the shilling was replaced by a
10 cent coin, where 10 shillings made up one
Australian Dollar.
The slang term for a shilling coin in Australia was "deener". The slang term for a shilling as currency unit was "bob", the same as in the United Kingdom.
The East African shilling was also in use in
Kenya,
Uganda,
Tanzania and
Somalia during colonial times. By the mid-1960s, these countries had become independent and replaced their currencies with the Kenyan shilling, the Ugandan shilling, the Tanzanian shilling and the Somali shilling respectively. Though all these currencies have different values at present, there are plans to reintroduce the East African shilling as a new common currency by 2009.
Other countries' shillings
Shillings were also issued in
Australia and
New Zealand before decimalisation in the 1960s, in
Austria ' until the advent of the euro, in the Scandinavian countries ' until the Scandinavian Monetary Union of 1873, and in the City of
Hamburg.
The
Sol , both also derived from the Roman Solidus, were the equivalent coins in
France, while the Sol remains the currency of
Peru .
Shillings were also used in
Malta, prior to decimalization in 1972, and had a face value of five Maltese cents.
Other countries that were formerly in the British Empire still use the term Shilling or the local variant informally as a unit of currency among the local populace. For Example in
Egypt and
Jordan the Shillin
Arabic: is equal to 1/20th of the
Egyptian Pound or the
Jordanian Dinar.
See also
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