<P> The shilling is a unit of currency formerly used in Austria, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, United States, and other British Commonwealth countries . Currently the shilling is used as a currency in four east African countries: Kenya (Kenyan shilling), Tanzania (Tanzanian shilling), Uganda (Ugandan shilling), and Somalia ((Somali shilling)), as well as in the autonomous Somali region of Somaliland (Somaliland Shilling). It is also the proposed currency that the east African community plans to introduce (east African shilling). The word shilling comes from old English "Scilling", a monetary term meaning twentieth of a pound, and from the Proto - Germanic root * skiljaną meaning' to separate .' The word "Scilling" is mentioned in the earliest recorded Germanic law codes those of Æthelberht of Kent . </P> <P> Slang terms for the old shilling coins include "bob" and "hog". While the derivation of "bob" is uncertain, John Camden Hotten in his 1864 Slang Dictionary says the original version was "bobstick" and wonders if it is connected with Sir Robert Walpole . </P> <P> One abbreviation for shilling is s (for solidus, see £ sd). Often it was represented by a solidus symbol ("/"), which may have originally stood for a long s or s, thus 1 / 9 would be one shilling and ninepence (and equivalent to 21 d; the shilling itself was equal to 12 d). A price with no pence was sometimes written with a solidus and a dash: 11 /--. </P> <P> The solidus symbol is still used for the Kenyan shilling (one of the successors to East African shilling), rather than sh . </P>

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