Shilling - Coat of Arms, Coin Type from Australia - detailed information

The Australian Shilling is a silver coin which was used in the Commonwealth of Australia prior to decimalisation. It has the same dimensions and composition as the British pre-decimal shilling, from which it is derived (for a time, the coins circulated in parallel and were interchangeable in Australia - but not in the United Kingdom). A shilling is equal to 1/20th of a pound.

The reverse of this first type of Australian shilling coins features the 1908 Coat of Arms. In 1938, a new design superseded this one - featuring a merino ram's head; the old type of coins remained in circulation.

The coins were struck by four different mints; if they had mint marks for a particular year of issue, those are located under the date on the reverse:
- Royal Mint, 1910 - 1915, no mint mark
- Birmingham Mint (ex Heaton and Sons), 1915, letter H
- Melbourne Mint, 1916 - 1936, letter M to 1920, then no mint mark
- Sydney Mint, 1921 - 1926, star in 1921 only, then no mint mark

After decimalisation on 14 February 1966, the shilling was re-denominated as 10 cents and continued to circulate for a time, along with the new 10¢ coins which were the same size and weight (but made of copper-nickel). Even though they were practically withdrawn from circulation in 1966, the shilling coins were never formally demonetised and are still legal tender.