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A 1933 UK shilling 1956 Elizabeth II UK shilling showing English and Scottish reverses. The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or one-twentieth of a pound before being phased out during the 1960s ...
The British shilling, abbreviated "1s" or "1/-", was a unit of currency and a denomination of sterling coinage worth 1 ⁄ 20 of one pound, or twelve pence. It was first minted in the reign of Henry VII as the testoon , and became known as the shilling, from the Old English scilling , [ 1 ] sometime in the mid-16th century.
Half a crown or half crown (value: two shillings and sixpence) An equivalent coin was not issued in the 1971 decimal currency range since there was no need for a 12 + 1 ⁄ 2 New Pence coin. Crown or five-shilling piece (value: five shillings) Dollar [16] [17] Ten-shilling note: Ten bob (note), half a bar: Australia: ten bob
Prior to decimalisation in 1971, there were 12 pence (written as 12d) in a shilling (written as 1s or 1/-) and 20 shillings in a pound, written as £1 (occasionally "L" was used instead of the pound sign, £). There were therefore 240 pence in a pound. For example, 2 pounds 14 shillings and 5 pence could have been written as £2 14s 5d or £2/14/5
The English shilling was a silver coin of the Kingdom of England, when first introduced known as the testoon. A shilling was worth twelve pence , [ 1 ] [ 2 ] and there were 20 shillings to the pound sterling . [ 3 ]
The symbol for the shilling was "s." – not from the first letter of "shilling", but from the Latin solidus. The symbol for the penny was "d.", from the French denier, from the Latin denarius (the solidus and denarius were Roman coins). A mixed sum of shillings and pence, such as 3 shillings and 6 pence, was written as "3/6" or "3s. 6d."
The shilling was also denoted by the slash symbol, also called a solidus for this reason, which was originally an adaptation of the long s. [46] The symbol "£", for the pound, is derived from the first letter of the Latin word for pound, libra. [47]
A variety of pegs to sterling applied until December 1931, when the government devalued the local unit by 20%, making one Australian pound equal to 16 shillings sterling and one pound sterling equal to 25 Australian shillings. Coins of the Australian pound also circulated freely in New Zealand, although they were never legal tender.