What is a shilling?
The shilling is a unit of currency formerly used in the United Kingdom and other British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, 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. The word is thought to derive from the base skell-, "to ring/resound" and the diminutivesuffix-ling. Slang terms for the old shilling coins include "bob" and "hog".
The abbreviation for shilling is s, from the Latin solidus, the name of a Roman coin. Often it was informally represented by a slash, standing for a long s or ſ, thus 1/6 would be 1 shilling and sixpence, often pronounced "one and six".
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108 Comments
William Laughlin
spg cool dude,
Your being from the United Kingdom should mean a better command of the Queen's English. Nowhere in the world is "should of" considered proper English. You should've known that.
Sean Philips
Haven’t been British currency for decades!
John Moore
A shilling was one twentieth of a pound and was used in the UK and some Empire nations but not all by a long way. It was replaced in 1971 when the UK adopted decimalisation so the shilling became 5p (five pence). By that time most Commonwealth countries had either used dollars or had their own currency for example, Malaysia always had the Ringgit which was divided into 100 cents just as India always had the Rupee. The answer is incorrect as a shilling was not used throughout the Commonwealth
JRW
An awkwardly worded question.
But I do recall when Australia changed from pound, shillings and pence to dollars and cents on 14 February 1966.
So much simpler, and the sky did not fall down!
Bank-Robber
United Kingdom Coins!!!
Anne
Didn't specify no longer in use
Armadillo
Pounds get you prison time.
Armadillo
Keith Richard Mears, That doesn't sound good.
Armadillo
Chris Braid, I understood the one about the pig much better. Arnold is a lovely name.
Christine Stolf
The answer is wrong. The British Commonwealth countries have their own currency
Carol Ann Wright
I'm British and never heard it called a hog.
Albert
First I thought it was a place. After seeing the options and the picture I realized it was a type of coin.
Don Rogers
Canada has never used the term Schilling for any denomination of currency.
Vaughan Clarke
As a part of the British commonwealth, my country Bermuda, used the shilling but today’s population uses dollars and cents in our own monies which .99 c to the US $1.00.
Player
It is the currency used in Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania
Bazzarooni
spg cool dude, don't be so pedantic
Chrissie
Ian Swindale, true, but our friends who don't read Latin might not have realised that, and younger folk might not have recognised George V's profile.
Chrissie
Louis Michael Durocher,, you're thinking of a crown, which was equal to 5/- (five shillings).
The Royal Mint does still produce crown coins, as commemorative pieces at a price way above their face value.
The half-crown coin (2/6) (two shillings and sixpence, or two and a half shillings) was in use until the 1970s; even after decimalisation when it became 2.5p (two and a half pee).