Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
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 ...
It was the first English machine-struck gold coin, originally representing a value of 20 shillings in sterling specie, equal to one pound, [2] but rises in the price of gold relative to silver caused the value of the guinea to increase, at times to as high as thirty shillings. From 1717 to 1816, its value was officially fixed at twenty-one ...
The Continental Currency dollar was valued relative to the states' currencies at the following rates: 5 shillings – Georgia; 6 shillings – Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia; 7 1 ⁄ 2 shillings – Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; 8 shillings – New York, North Carolina; 32 1 ⁄ 2 shillings ...
The coins of this reign weighed 41.7–41.8 grams. The value of the guinea had fluctuated over the years from twenty to thirty shillings (in 1694 [2]), and back down to twenty one shillings and sixpence by the start of George's reign. A Royal Proclamation of December 1717 fixed the value of the guinea at twenty one shillings.
The crown coin was nicknamed the dollar. In 1940, an agreement with the US pegged the Pound sterling to the US dollar at a rate of £1 = US$4.03. This meaning of "dollar" is not to be confused with the British trade dollar that circulated in East Asia. In 2014, a new world record price was achieved for a milled silver crown.
However, the guinea changed value to 21 shillings in 1717. It was not until 1817 that the 20 shilling (one pound sterling) coin was re-introduced – again named the sovereign, now a British coin, which continues to be issued to the present day.
The old shilling coin continued to circulate with a value of 5 new pence, and the old florin with a value of 10 new pence. [30] Unlike in the UK, where the sixpence continued to circulate at a value of 2 + 1 / 2 p, the Irish sixpence was withdrawn from circulation after decimalisation.