Shilling (British coin): Difference between revisions

The first coins of the pound sterling with the value of 12d were minted in 1503<ref name="Rees1819">{{cite book|author=Abraham Rees|title=The Cyclopaedia; Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature. – London, Longman, Hurst (usw.) 1819–20|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUVRAAAAcAAJ&pg=PT403 |year=1819|publisher=Longman, Hurst|page=403}}</ref> or 1504<ref name="RMM RftS"/> and were known as testoons. The testoon was one of the first English coins to bear a real (rather than a representative) portrait of the monarch on its obverse, and it is for this reason that it obtained its name from an [[Italy|Italian]] coin known as the ''testone'', or ''headpiece'', which had been introduced in [[Milan]] in 1474.<ref name="RMM Shilling">{{cite web|url=http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/coins/british-coinage/old-denominations/shilling/index.html|title=Shilling|publisher=Royal Mint Museum|accessdate=14 November 2014}}</ref> Between 1544 and 1551 the coinage was debased repeatedly by the governments of [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] and [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]] in an attempt to generate more money to fund foreign wars. This debasement meant that coins produced in 1551 had one-fifth of the silver content of those minted in 1544, and consequently the value of new testoons fell from 12d to 6d.<ref name="WagnerSchmid2011">{{cite book|author1=John A. Wagner|author2=Susan Walters Schmid|title=Encyclopedia of Tudor England |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUCY3otvttEC&pg=PA281|date=December 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-298-2|page=281}}</ref> The reason the testoon decreased in value is that unlike today, the value of coins was determined by the market price of the metal contained within them. This debasement was recognised as a mistake, and during [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth's]] reign newly minted coins, including the testoon (now known as the shilling), had a much higher silver content and regained their pre-debasement value.<ref name="Pascucci2013">{{cite book|author=Margherita Pascucci|title=Philosophical Readings of Shakespeare: "Thou Art the Thing Itself"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eRI0AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA103|date=22 May 2013|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-32458-0|page=103}}</ref>

 

 

The Royal Mint debased the silver coinage in 1920 from 92.5% silver to 50% silver. Shillings of both alloys were minted that year.<ref name="Groom2010">{{cite book|author=David Groom|title=The Identification of British 20th Century Silver Coin Varieties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nd5nAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA44|date=10 July 2010|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-4457-5301-0|pages=44}}</ref> This debasement was done because of the rising price of silver around the world, and followed the global trend of the elimination, or the reducing in purity, of the silver in coinage.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Numismatist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N0NmAAAAMAAJ|year=1972|publisher=American Numismatic Association}}</ref> The minting of silver coinage of the pound sterling ceased completely in 1946 for similar reasons, exacerbated by the costs of the [[Second World War]]. New "silver" coinage was instead minted in [[cupronickel]], an alloy of copper and nickel containing no silver at all.<ref name="Challis1992">{{cite book|author=Christopher Edgar Challis|title=A New History of the Royal Mint|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zz89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA583|year=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24026-0|pages=583}}</ref>