Shilling
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The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern
Currently the shilling is used as a currency in five east African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, and the de facto country of Somaliland.[1] The East African Community additionally plans to introduce an East African shilling.
History
The word shilling comes from
In origin, the word schilling designated the solidus of Late Antiquity, the gold coin that replaced the aureus in the 4th century. The Anglo-Saxon scillingas of the 7th century were still small gold coins.[citation needed]
In 796, Charlemagne passed a monetary reform, based on the Carolingian silver pound (about 406.5 grams). The schilling was one-twentieth of a pound or about 20.3 grams of silver. One schilling had 12 denarii or deniers ("pennies"). There were, however, no silver schilling coins in the Carolingian period, and gold schillings (equivalent to twelve silver pfennigs) were very rare.[citation needed]
In the 12th century, larger silver coins of multiple pfennig weight were minted, known as denarii grossi or groschen (groats). These heavier coins were valued at between 4 and 20 of the silver denarii. In the late medieval period, states of the Holy Roman Empire began minting similar silver coins of multiple pfennig weight, some of them denominated as schilling.[citation needed]
In the 16th century, numerous different types of schilling were minted in
By the 17th century, further devaluation resulted in schillings in the Holy Roman Empire being minted in billon (majority base metal content) instead of silver, with 48 schillings to one Reichsthaler. The English (later British) shilling continued to be minted as a silver coin until 1946.[citation needed]
Countries
Countries | Currency | ISO 4217 code |
---|---|---|
Kenya | Kenyan shilling | KES |
Somalia | Somalian shilling
|
SOS |
Tanzania | Tanzanian shilling | TZS |
Uganda | Ugandan shilling | UGX |
Unrecognized countries
Countries | Currency | ISO 4217 code |
---|---|---|
Somaliland | Somaliland shilling | SOS |
British Isles
Kingdom of England
A shilling was a coin used in England from the reign of
Kingdom of Scotland
The term shilling (Scots: schilling) was in use in Scotland from early medieval times.
Great Britain, then the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The common currency for
At decimalisation in 1971, the shilling coin was superseded by the
Three coins denominated in multiple shillings were also in circulation at this time. They were:
- the florin, two shillings (2/–), which adopted the value of 10 new pence (10p) at decimalisation;
- the half-crown, two shillings and sixpence (2/6) or one-eighth of a pound, which was abolished at decimalisation (otherwise it would have had the value of 121/2p);
- the crown (five shillings or one-fourth of a pound), the highest-denominated non-bullion UK coin in circulation at decimalisation (in practice, crowns were commemorative coins not used in everyday transactions).
Irish shillings
Between 1701 and the unification of the currencies in 1825, the Irish shilling was valued at 13 pence and known as the "black hog", as opposed to the 12-pence English shillings which were known as "white hogs".[3]
In the Irish Free State and Republic of Ireland, the shilling coin was issued as scilling (the Irish language equivalent). It was worth 1/20 of an Irish pound, and was interchangeable at the same value to the British coin, which continued to be used in Northern Ireland. The coin featured a bull on the reverse side. The first minting, from 1928 until 1941, contained 75% silver, more than the equivalent British coin. The pre-decimal Irish shilling coin (which was retained for some time after decimalisation) was withdrawn from circulation on 1 January 1993, when a smaller five-pence coin was introduced.
Abbreviation and slang
One abbreviation for shilling is s (for
Slang terms for the old shilling coins include "bob" and "hog". While the derivation of "bob" is uncertain,
British Empire
Australian shillings
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.
After 1966, shillings continued to circulate, as they were replaced by ten-cent coins of the same size and weight.
New Zealand shilling
New Zealand shillings, twenty of which made up one New Zealand pound, were first issued in 1933 and featured the image of a Maori warrior carrying a taiaha "in a warlike attitude" on the reverse.[6] In 1967, New Zealand's currency was decimalised and the shilling was replaced by a ten-cent coin of the same size and weight. Ten-cent coins minted through the remainder of the 1960s included the legend "ONE SHILLING" on the reverse. Smaller ten-cent coins were introduced in 2006.
Maltese shillings
The shilling (Maltese: xelin, pl. xelini) was used in Malta, prior to decimalisation in 1972, and had a face value of five Maltese cents.
Ceylonese shillings
In British Ceylon, a shilling (Sinhala: Silima, Tamil: Silin) was equivalent to eight fanams. With the replacement of the rixdollar by the rupee in 1852, a shilling was deemed to be equivalent to half a rupee. On the decimalisation of the currency in 1969, a shilling was deemed to be equivalent to 50 Ceylon cents. The term continued to be used colloquially until the late 20th century.[7]
East African shillings
The
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.[9] Though all these currencies have different values at present, there were plans to reintroduce the East African shilling as a new common currency by 2009,[10] although this has not come about.
North America
In the
In
Somali shilling
The Somali shilling is the official currency of Somalia. It is subdivided into 100 cents (English), senti (Somali, also سنت) or centesimi (Italian).
The Somali shilling has been the currency of parts of Somalia since 1921, when the
That same year, the Banca Nazionale Somala issued notes for 5, 10, 20 and 100 scellini/shillings. In 1975, the Bankiga Qaranka Soomaaliyeed (Somali National Bank) introduced notes for 5, 10, 20 and 100 shilin/shillings. These were followed in 1978 by notes of the same denominations issued by the Bankiga Dhexe Ee Soomaaliya (Central Bank of Somalia). 50 shilin/shillings notes were introduced in 1983, followed by 500 shilin/shillings in 1989 and 1000 shilin/shillings in 1990. Also in 1990 there was an attempt to reform the currency at 100 to 1, with new banknotes of 20 and 50 new shilin prepared for the redenomination.[15]
Following the breakdown in central authority that accompanied the civil war, which began in the early 1990s, the value of the Somali shilling was disrupted. The Central Bank of Somalia, the nation's monetary authority, also shut down operations. Rival producers of the local currency, including autonomous regional entities such as the Somaliland territory, subsequently emerged.
Somalia's newly established
Somaliland shilling
The
Other
Elsewhere in the former British Empire, forms of the word shilling remain in informal use. In
, the term shilling is commonly used to refer to twenty-five cents.Other countries
- The Austrian schilling was the currency of Austria between 1 March 1924[19] and 1938 and again between 1945 and 2002. It was replaced by the euro at a fixed parity of €1 = 13.7603 schilling. The schilling was divided into 100 groschen.
- In the principalities covering present Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg, the cognate term schelling was used as an equivalent 'arithmetic' currency, a 'solidus' representing 12 'denarii' or 1/20 'pound', while actual coins were rarely physical multiples of it, but still expressed in these terms.
- Shillings were issued in the Scandinavian countries (skilling) until the Scandinavian Monetary Union of 1873, and in the city of Hamburg, Germany.
- In Poland szeląg was used.[20]
- The soll, later the sou, both also derived from the Roman solidus, were the equivalent coins in France, while the 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.
References
- ISBN 978-90-04-22254-0.
- ^ "Understanding old British money - pounds, shillings and pence". woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk. Archived from the original on 27 September 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- OCLC 422279387.
- ^ "May and the Slash - English Project". www.englishproject.org. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- ^ John Camden Hotten (1864). Slang Dictionary.
- ^ Reserve Bank of New Zealand Archived 23 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine- URL retrieved 17 April 2011
- Central Bank of Ceylon, Colombo, 15 March 1984
- ^ Description of Somalia shilling - URL retrieved 8 October 2006
- ^ Dissolution of the East African Monetary Union Archived 11 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine – URL retrieved 8 October 2006
- ^ East African Business Council - Fact Sheet: Customs Union Archived 10 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine - URL Retrieved 8 October 2002
- ^ Solomon Northup. Twelve Years a Slave. Auburn, Derby and Miller; Buffalo, Derby, Orton and Mulligan; [etc., etc.] 1853
- ^ Alger, Horatio Jr (5 May 1868). Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks (1 ed.). New York: A K Loring.
- ^ Lundin, Leigh (11 May 2014). "Literary Rags". SleuthSayers.org. New York: SleuthSayers. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014.
- newspapers.com.
- ^ "CURRENCY". somalbanca.org. Archived from the original on 27 December 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- ^ a b "Central Bank of Somalia - Monetary policy". somalbanca.org. Archived from the original on 25 January 2009. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- ^ "Somaliland's Quest for International Recognition and the HBM-SSC Factor". wardheernews.com. Archived from the original on 28 May 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- ^ "Time for Somaliland to Rethink its Strategy". www.hiiraan.com. Archived from the original on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
- ^ "Gold and silver shillings of Austria". Knowledge base – GoldAdvert. 14 June 2018. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
- ^ "shillings - Polish translation – Linguee". Linguee.com. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
Further reading
- Mays, James O. "The Romance of the English Shilling", History Today (December 1971), Vol. 21 Issue 12, pp 848–855, online. Covers 1504 to 1971.
External links
- Media related to Shilling at Wikimedia Commons
- British Coins – information about British coins.
- The History of the Shilling