shillings

Shilling is a unit of currency used in several countries and historically in the United Kingdom. The term comes from Old English scillinga, and in medieval England a shilling was worth 1/20 of a pound, with 12 pence making up a shilling in the pre-decimal system (there were 20 shillings per pound and 240 pence per pound). Decimalization in the United Kingdom in 1971 ended the use of shillings as a distinct monetary unit, replacing pounds and pence with a decimal system.

In the early 20th century, the East African shilling circulated across British-controlled East Africa. Introduced in 1921 by the East African Currency Board, it was a decimal currency divided into 100 cents. After independence, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika (which became Tanzania) adopted their own shilling currencies in the 1960s and 1970s, although the name remained the same for some time.

Today, the term shilling continues to be used in several countries as the official currency unit. Notable examples include the Kenyan shilling (KES), the Ugandan shilling (UGX), the Tanzanian shilling (TZS), and the Somali shilling (SOS). Each of these modern shillings is subdivided into 100 subunits (commonly referred to as cents or equivalent subunits), and the currencies serve as the basic unit of account in their respective economies.

Shilling-related terms and symbols vary by country; historically, prices were often quoted in pounds, shillings, and pence in Britain, with the letter s used for shillings and d for pence. Today, shilling remains a historical reference in some contexts and a current monetary unit in several African nations.