SHILLING

former English (and British) coin, nominally valued at one-twentieth of a pound sterling, or 12 pence. A silver coin of 12 pence, called a teston, or testoon, was first struck in 1504, bearing a profile likeness of Henry VII and engraved by Alexander Bruchsal. This coin was continued by Henry VIII and was renamed the shilling during the succeeding reign of Edward VI. (The direct origin of the word is obscure: there was an Anglo-Saxon coin termed scilling, or scylling, and some German states minted schillings from the 13th century onward.) By 1921 the value of the British shilling had become merely token, for the coin's silver content became fractional; in 1947 it became wholly cupronickel (coppernickel alloy). The shilling was phased out of the British system of coinage beginning on Feb. 15, 1971, when a decimal system based on 100 new pence to 1 was introduced. The shilling was also formerly used in such countries as Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. It is the basic monetary unit (equaling 100 cents) in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, and Uganda.