Shilling (English coin)

[4] In the Kingdom of England, during the reign of Henry VII, the forerunner of the shilling, the testoon, was introduced.

BRISTOLIE are extremely rare and were struck pre- and post-death Henry VIII 1547 with WS monogram in legend.

(One was recorded pre-WWII at 6.89 gm fully round, said to be from BRISTOL used as evidence at the trial of William Sharington.)

The mint-marks for these testoons are as follows: The coins from Southwark have the reverse legend "CIVITAS LONDON" (City of London) and the Bristol coins the legend "CIVITAS BRISTOLLIE" (City of Bristol) or later "CIVITAS BRISTOLIE" (City of Bristol) The obverse of these coins shows a facing bust of Henry VIII and the reverse side, a crowned rose with [WS] in legend.

Henry VIII's young son Edward VI continued the issues of base testoons.

In his reign the testoons were called "shillings" for the first time, and the coins show the bust of the young boy king.

One of the first events of Elizabeth I's reign was the counter-marking of the Edward VI shillings to revalue them to their true worth.

Although Eloye found it very difficult to make smaller coins the sixpences and shillings were made in fairly large quantities.

The shillings still tend to be much rarer than sixpences and are often found weakly struck, gilded, holed, mounted etc.

During the reign of James I, coinage continued in much the same way as in Elizabeth's but the coins have a mark of value (XII) in front of the bust.