Everything about Shillings totally explained
The
shilling is a unit of
currency in current and former use in many countries. The word is thought to derive from the base
skell-, "to ring/resound", and the diminutive suffix
-ing.
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,
for example, 1/6d as 1 shilling and sixpence (often pronounced "one and six"), or when there were no pence with a slash then a hyphen,
for example, "11/-". Quite often a triangular shape or (
sans serif)
apostrophe would be used to give a neater appearance,
for example, "1'6" and "11'-". In Africa it's often abbreviated
sh.
United Kingdom
In the
United Kingdom, a shilling was a coin used from the reign of
Henry VII until
decimalisation in 1971. Before decimalisation, there were twenty shillings to the pound and twelve
pence to the shilling, and thus 240 pence to the pound. Two coins denominated in multiple shillings were also in circulation at this time. They were the
florin (2/-), which adopted the value of ten new pence (10p), and the
crown (5/-), the highest denominated non-bullion UK coin in circulation at decimalisation.
The word
shilling comes from
schilling, an accounting term that dates back to
Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. Colonial shillings, such as the 1652
pine-tree shilling, were made in
Massachusetts when the
Puritans settled America. At decimalisation, the shilling was superseded by the
new five pence piece, which initially was of identical size and weight and had the same value, and inherited the shilling's slang name of a
bob.
Irish shillings
In the
Republic of Ireland, the shilling was issued as
scilling in
Irish. They had kept the original 12d value on their shilling. It was issued until 1969, and after 1971, like the United Kingdom, 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Central Bank of Ireland issued a smaller 5p piece, the shilling was withdrawn in 1992.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
Australian shillings, twenty of which made up one
Australian pound, 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 King
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
ten cent coin (Australian), 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.
East African shillings
The
East African shilling was in use in the
British colonies and
protectorates of
British Somaliland,
Kenya,
Tanganyika,
Uganda and
Zanzibar from 1920, when it replaced the
rupee, until after those countries became independent, and in
Tanzania after that country was formed by the merger of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964. Upon independence in 1960, the East African shilling in the Northern Region of
Somalia (former British Somaliland) and the Somali Somalo in the Southern Region (former
Italian Somaliland) were replaced by the
Somali Shilling. In 1966 the East African Monetary Union broke up, and the member countries replaced their currencies with the
Kenyan shilling, the
Ugandan shilling and the
Tanzanian 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
New Zealand before
decimalisation in the 1960s, in
Austria (Schilling) until the advent of the
Euro, in the Scandinavian countries
(skilding) until the
Scandinavian Monetary Union of 1873, and in the city of
Hamburg, Germany.
The
Sol (later the
sou), both also derived from the Roman
solidus, were the equivalent coins in
France, while the (nuevo)
sol (PEN) remains the currency of
Peru. As in France, the Peruvian sol was originally named after the Roman solidus, but the name of the Peruvian currency is now much more closely linked to the Spanish word for the sun (
sol). This helps explain the name of its temporary replacement, the
inti, named for the Incan sun god.
Shillings were also used in
Malta, prior to
decimalization in 1972, and had a face value of five Maltese
cents.
Other countries that were in the British Empire still use the term
shilling or the local variant (Shillin) informally as a unit of currency among the local populace.
In
Vanuatu and
Solomon Islands, the word "selen" (shilling) is used in
Bislama and
Pijin to mean "money" and in
Egypt and
Jordan the Shillin (
Arabic: شلن) is equal to 1/20th of the
Egyptian pound or the
Jordanian dinar. In the United States during colonial times, British money was used, and references to shillings are often seen in early American literature.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Shillings'.
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