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Before decimalization in 1971, shillings had a value of 12 pence; equal to one-twentieth of a pound. (There were 240 pence in a pound at the time.) Post-decimalization, "shilling" referrs to the 5-pence coin, which is still worth 1/20th of a pound (because there are now 100 pence in a pound).
The name shilling is believed to come from old Scandinavian skilling, meaning a mark on a stick.
The abbreviation for shilling is "s.", from the Latin solidus, the name of a Roman coin. Sometimes it was written informally with a forward slash i.e. "1/6", 1 shilling, 6 pence or when there no pence, with a slash then a hyphen i.e. "11/-".
A slang name for a shilling was a bob (which was invariant in the plural, as in "ten bob note"; "that cost me two bob").
To take the King's shilling was to enlist in the army or navy.
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. They were finally withdrawn in 1990, when a new, smaller, five pence coin was produced.
In IrelandThe island of Ireland ire in Irish, Airlann in Ulster Scots) is the third-largest island in Europe. It lies on the west side of the Irish Sea, close to the island of Great Britain. It is composed of the Republic of Ireland in the south and Northern Irelan, the shilling was issued as "scilling" in Irish languageIrish Gaeilge is a Goidelic language spoken in Ireland. The language is sometimes referred to in English as Gaelic ( SAMPA: /"geIlIk/), Irish Gaelic or Erse but is more generally referred to in Ireland as the Irish language or simply Irish . Use of the te. They had kept the original 12-pence value on their shilling. It was issued until 1969, and after 1971, like Britain, the general public often used a shilling to pay 5-pences to shops, etc. When the Central Bank of Ireland issued a smaller five-pence piece, the shilling was finally demonetised in 1992.
The AustralianAustralia is the sixth-largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring count Shilling was 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.
Due to the reach of the British EmpireThe British Empire in the early decades of the 20th century, held sway over a population of 400 500 million people (roughly a quarter of the world's population), and covered nearly 30 million square kilometres, (roughly two-fifths of the world's land area, the shilling was once used on every inhabited continent. This 2-shilling piece was minted for British West Africa . Shillings were also issued in New ZealandFor alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). New Zealand is a country formed of two major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. A common Mori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa popularly translated as Land before decimalisation in the 1960s, in Austria ( schillings) until the advent of the euro, and in the Scandinavian countries (skilding) until the Scandinavian Monetary Union of 1873. Shillings remain the basic currency unit of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia.
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.