Daily AncestorYork shilling
A York shilling was 12 1/2 cents, one eighth of a dollar: New Yorkers kept counting in shillings long after the dollar replaced pounds.
New York currency rated the dollar at 8 shillings, so each shilling was an eighth of a dollar. The coin people actually handed over was usually the Spanish real, the same coin called a bit or a levy elsewhere.
The usage lasted well into the 1800s. Webster's 1913 dictionary lists North Carolina, Ohio and Michigan among places that also reckoned in New York currency, and an American glossary quotes York shilling prices from 1824 to 1861. Three shillings in an 1840s New York account means 37 1/2 cents, not English money.
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Daily Ancestor. "York shilling." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/money-measures/york-shilling. Last checked 2026-10-03.