SHILLING, an English silver coin, equal to twelve pence, or the twentieth part of a pound.

Freherus derives the Saxon seilling, whence our shilling, from a corruption of siliqua; proving the derivation by several texts of law, and, among others, by the twenty-sixth law, De annuis legatis. Skinner deduces it from the Saxon scild, “shield,” by reason of the escutcheon of arms which it has upon it.

Bishop Hooper derives it from the Arabic scheele, signifying a weight; but others, with greater probability, deduce it from the Latin sicilicus, which signified in that language a quarter of an ounce, or the forty-eighth part of a Roman pound. In confirmation of this etymology, it is alleged that the shilling kept its original signification, and bore the same proportion to the Saxon pound as sicilicus did to the Roman and the Greck, being exactly the forty-eighth part of the Saxon pound.

However, the Saxon law reckons the pound in the round number at fifty shillings, but they really coined out of it only forty-eight. The value of the shilling was fivepence, but it was reduced to fourpence above a century before the Conquest; for several of the Saxon laws, made in Athelstan’s reign, oblige us to take this estimate. Thus it continued to the Norman times, as one of the Conqueror’s laws sufficiently ascertains; and it seems to have been the common coin by which the English payments were adjusted. After the Conquest, the French solidus of twelvepence, which was in use among the Normans, was called by the English name of shilling; and the Saxon shilling of fourpence took a Norman name, and was called the grout, or great coin, because it was the largest English coin then known in England.

It was the opinion of Bishops Fleetwood and Gibson, and of the antiquaries in general, that, though the method of reckoning by pounds, marks, and shillings, as well as by pence and farthings, had been in constant use even from the Saxon times, long before the Norman conquest, there was never such a coin in England as either a pound or a mark, nor any shilling, till the year 1504 or 1505, when a few silver shillings or twelvepences were coined, which have long since been solely confined to the cabinets of collectors.

Mr Clarke combats this opinion, alleging that some coins mentioned by Mr Folkes, under Edward I. were probably Saxon shillings new minted, and that Archbishop Aelfric expressly says that the Saxons had three names for their money: mancuses, shillings, and pennies. He also urges the different value of the Saxon shilling at different times, and its uniform proportion to the pound, as an argument that their shilling was a coin; and the testimony of the Saxon gospels, in which the word we have translated pieces of silver is rendered shillings, which, he says, they would[7:20:207] hardly have done if there had been no such coin as a shilling then in use. Accordingly the Saxons expressed their shilling in Latin by siclus and argenteus. He further adds, that the Saxon shilling was never expressed by solidus till after the Norman settlements in England; and howsoever it altered during the long period that elapsed from the Conquest to the time of Henry VII. it was the most constant denomination of money in all payments, though it was then only a species of account, or the twentieth part of the pound sterling; and when it was again revived as a coin, it lessened gradually as the pound sterling lessened, from the 28th of Edward III. to the 43d of Elizabeth.

In the year 1560 there was a peculiar sort of shilling struck in Ireland, of the value of ninepence English, which passed in Ireland for twelvepence. The motto on the reverse was, posui Deum adjutorem meum. Eighty-two of these shillings, according to Malynes, went to the pound. They weighed therefore twenty grains one fourth each, which is somewhat heavier in proportion than the English shilling of that time, sixty-two of which went to the pound, each weighing ninety-two grains seven eighths; and the Irish shilling being valued at the Tower at ninepence English, that is, one fourth part less than the English shilling, it should therefore proportionally weigh one fourth part less, and its full weight be somewhat more than sixty-two grains. But some of them found at this time, though much worn, weighed sixty-nine grains. In 1598, five different pieces of money of this kind were struck in England for the service of the kingdom of Ireland. These were shillings to be current in Ireland at twelvepence each, half shillings to be current at sixpence, and quarter shillings at threepence. Pennies and halfpennies were also struck of the same kind, and sent over for the payment of the army in Ireland. The money thus coined was of a very base mixture of copper and silver; and two years after there were more pieces of the same kinds struck for the same service, which were still worse; the former being three ounces of silver to nine ounces of copper, and the latter only two ounces eighteen pennyweights to nine ounces two pennyweights of the alloy.

The Dutch, Flemish, and Germans, have likewise their shilling, called schelin, schilling, and scalin; but these not being of the same weight or fineness with the English shilling, are not current at the same value. The English shilling is worth about twenty-three French sols; those of Holland and Germany about eleven sols and a half; those of Flanders about nine. The Dutch shillings are also called sols de gros, because equal to twelve gros. The Danes have copper shillings worth about one fourth of a farthing sterling.