Talk:Shilling (British coin)

Requested move
Could we call this British shilling or British shilling coin please, to eliminate the parentheses and piped links? --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 23:28, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

The move from Shilling (United Kingdom) to Shilling (British coin) improves things, but in the absence of any response to my post above, I went ahead and moved it to British shilling coin, as that is a natural article title that needs no parentheses, and meets the intent of the earlier move. I would suggest a similar move for other coins, to better meet the spirit of WP:NAME. --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 06:11, 11 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm afraid I moved it back to "Shilling (British coin)", so as to be consistent with all other British coin articles (or all the ones I've looked at, anyway). Another Matt (talk) 14:42, 3 January 2010 (UTC).
 * I agree that some other coin articles use unnecessary parentheses. However, across Wikipedia as a whole, parentheses are generally avoided where a natural title can be chosen without them.  --Hroðulf (or Hrothulf) (Talk) 20:24, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

Tom Lehrer
It would be interesting to make a mention about the Tom Lehrer music making fun of the United Kingdom currency before the decimalization as show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIpr0s52yVk —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.78.101.149 (talk) 05:52, 7 August 2008 (UTC)

Scottish testoons
The implication of is that testoons were also Scottish coins under James VI (I of England). Clarification of when the currencies were united would be of interest. . dave souza, talk 10:04, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

Toubab
"toubab" and variants are widespread in North African French. The word was borrowed from the Arabic meaning "doctor" or in some dialects "sorcerer" and was generalized to mean "learned person", the meaning it has in France, and from there in some areas to "white person". Gambian "toubab" is almost certainly the same word, and therefore has nothing to do with "two bob". I don't have references offhand so won't do anything to the article.Bill (talk) 04:08, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

decimalisation
The shilling wasn't superseded at decimalisation but stayed in circulation. 5p pieces weren't reduced in size. - 80.189.103.145 (talk) 19:00, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

bob
This wasn't a slang name for the shilling nor for the 5p coin. It was not like "tanner". It was actually a non-countable noun for an amount of shillings consisting of more than one shilling. You wouldn't say "a bob" nor "one bob". You could say "two bob" and "19 bob", but not "20 bob" (which was a pound) nor "21 bob" (a guinea). You may well say "30 bob" or "40 bob" (the latter meaning two pounds). The commonest use was in "10 bob" as in "10 bob note", a currency note/bill worth half a pound. - 80.189.103.145 (talk) 19:14, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

The term bob is still used in East Africa, where the shilling is the local currency (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda). So that they refer to a "ten bob note" 09:06, 13 July 2018 (UTC)~ Noel Ellis — Preceding unsigned comment added by Noel Ellis (talk • contribs)

Need source for cow/sheep value
I am considering hiding the sentence about shilling as the value of a "cow in Kent" (or a sheep), until a WP:RS reference can be found. -Ztronix 19:43, 14 January 2011 (UTC) You see neither editor need pledge which is true, only that there is such a legend. e.g. "There is a legend that a shilling was judged to be the value of a "cow in Kent".. but you do not say if it is true, neither of you will ever know for sure, See what I mean? Kildwyke (talk) 06:19, 24 February 2018 (UTC) Kildwyke (talk) 06:19, 24 February 2018 (UTC)
 * I found an ebook from Britannica, so I will add that as a source for now. -Ztronix (talk) 00:43, 15 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Direct contradiction between associated wikipedis page. This subject carries a direct contradiction: "Originally, a shilling was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent, or a sheep elsewhere." However on Shilling end of the introduction it states "In the past, the English world has had various myths about the shilling. One myth was that it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere." So which true? Heres the way to escape: I found in two similar dispute where my contestant editor and I could not agree as to which story was false. but agreed that both our pages do state that "it is true that there is a legend/myth that ...etc.".

Coins of more than a shilling
"Two coins denominated in multiple shillings were also in existence at this time". There were three: the florin (2/=) and half crown (2/6), which were in general circulation, and the crown (5/=), which was legal tender but not in general circulation, being issued mostly as a commemorative coin. No longerr in circulation was the guinea, 21/= or £1 1/=. S.C. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.222.160.167 (talk) 23:54, 27 March 2013 (UTC)

Merger proposal
I propose that Shilling (English coin) be merged into this article. The distinction is not a useful or particularly meaningful one and and the subject matter would benefit from a single clear and concise article. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Retroplum (talk) 17:04, 17 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Additionally, if the consensus is yes to this proposal then similar mergers for other articles would seem like a good idea. Some, e.g. threepence, already have a single article for the post-1707 and pre-1707 coins. Retroplum (talk) 23:48, 18 November 2014 (UTC)


 * I agree, Shilling (English coin) versus Shilling (British coin) is so confusing it s driving me crazy, and I'm a British old man. But which will you declare to be the main title: (English coin) or (British coin] ?Kildwyke (talk) 06:25, 24 February 2018 (UTC)

similar sized coins
There were a number of coins the same size as the old shilling. Many were successors, such the British and Irish five pence, or the Australian and New Zealand ten cent coin (and equivalent Pacific countries like Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Papua New Guinea); but by a coincidence the US and Canadian quarter were the same size (but not the weight), as was the German Deutschmark. This has led to a conspiracy theory that the German Central Bank pressured Ireland to re-place its currency. I certainly noticed in 1987 that on changing money in Munich that the German money change gave me two pounds worth of British five pee coins. Normally money changes do not deal in coins, at least small change, other than one pound coins. My flight was delayed and I found that the coins worked in German coin machines (at a rate of five pence to one Deutschmark, about six times the exchange rate) which is why Germany had ended up with all these coins. In 1989 colleagues reported that the five pee coins did not work in cigarette machines outside the British military based at Paderborne. In the US, Bell Telephones were weight sensitive and would not accept 5 pee coins, but many Coke machines and other coin vending machines such as washing machines did at a rate of five pence to 25 US cents, about two and half times the exchange rate. Americans and Canadians in the UK were confused by the comparison, because in North America a quarter is one of the largest coins on circulation, while in the UK at the time (1986-90), five pence was one of the smaller coins in circulation 09:06, 13 July 2018 (UTC) Noel Ellis — Preceding unsigned comment added by Noel Ellis (talk • contribs)

Two articles primarily about the British shilling
Do we have a WP:FORK violation? In addition to this article, we also have Shilling which describes itself in its opening hatnote as being about [the] British and Commonwealth coin. So in essence we have two articles covering the same thing. I have opened a discussion at talk:Shilling to suggest that Shilling become a simple disambiguation article, pointing to East African shilling, British shilling and AU/NZ/IE etc shillings if such exist? Contributions appreciated to the debate there, please? (not here). John Maynard Friedman (talk) 00:20, 19 July 2022 (UTC)

Let's just take out the "value" tag
I have tried extremely hard to find some sort of solution, but there does not appear to be a satisfactory one, it just leads to misunderstandings and disagreements without any possible solution, so I say just omit it from the infobox altogether. TheCurrencyGuy (talk) 05:38, 22 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Discussion centralised at talk:Pound sterling --John Maynard Friedman (talk) 08:46, 22 July 2022 (UTC)

17th and 18th century shillings
There is almost no information in this article about shillings past 1604 and before 1838. The impression I got from trying to research it is that there was a 1756 mintage under George II and a 1787 mintage under George III.

I hope someone more scholarly than me is able to fill the gaps, coinage during this period is super interesting. 2603:6011:4602:D3DA:7C97:236D:C8B3:8EBE (talk) 00:23, 13 September 2022 (UTC)