I have quite a few shillings, and some florins.

Aren't shillings the ones that were still in use as 5p and 10p coins, up until probably the early 90s? I remember them.

I think so.

Butterfield wrote:

Aren't shillings the ones that were still in use as 5p and 10p coins, up until probably the early 90s? I remember them.

Shillings were used as 5p, and florins as 10p. The old large format 5p and 10p coins were exactly the same size as them.

I discovered recently that up till 1980, sixpences were still legal tender too, worth 2 1/2 p.

My mother used to work in a post office in the 70s, there was always this one little old lady who would ask for Shillings in her change as she liked them, but only the ones before 1936 or something.


Found out later they were pure silver.

As a child, I remember the shillings (and florins) had got a "man" on them instead of the Queen.

Some of them did, but there were a lot of post-1953 ones about with the queen on.

My parents had a box of old coins which were never legal tender after decimalisation - massive half-crowns, little thick threepenny bits and the old big pre-decimal pennies. Some of the latter had another man on them, presumably George V.

Butterfield wrote:

As a child, I remember the shillings (and florins) had got a "man" on them instead of the Queen.

I've got a coffee jar full of hand-me-down old coins including some of the above such as the giant pennies and delightful threepenny bits. The oldest coin in there is from like 1878 or something.