Shilling

The shilling, written s. or with a slash as in 7/6 (seven shillings and sixpence), was the middle unit of the old money. In colonial accounts it was usually a shilling of local currency, worth less than an English shilling.

People kept counting in shillings after the dollar came in, but the rate differed by state. In the later colonial period a Spanish dollar passed for 6 shillings in New England, 7s. 6d. in Pennsylvania and 8 shillings in New York, and Webster's 1913 dictionary gives 4s. 8d. for Georgia and South Carolina currency after the dollar was adopted. A price of 2 shillings in Connecticut was not the same sum as 2 shillings in New York.