The standard circulating coinage of the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories is denominated in pennies and pounds sterling, and ranges in value from one penny sterling to two pounds. Since decimalisation, on 15 February 1971, the pound has been divided into 100 pence. Before decimalisation, twelve pence made a shilling, and twenty shillings made a pound.
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or one-twentieth of a pound before being phased out during the 1960s and 1970s.
The postal and philatelic history of Canada concerns postage of the territories which have formed Canada. Before Canadian confederation, the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland issued stamps in their own names. The postal history falls into four major periods: French control (1604–1763), British control (1763–1841), colonial government control (1841–1867), and Canada, since 1867.
The postage stamps and postal history of British Columbia started in 1860 with the issue of a single brownish-rose stamp depicting Queen Victoria in profile and denominated as 2½ pence. It was issued jointly by Vancouver Island and British Columbia as each colony had insufficient postal trade to justify printing separate stamps. In 1862, Vancouver Island adopted decimal currency and sold the stamp for 5 cents, before issuing its own 5 and 10 cent stamps in September 1865. Meanwhile, British Columbia had increased the postal rate to 3 pence but continued to use the unified stamp. In November 1865, British Columbia issued its own stamps and the unified stamp became invalid. In 1866, the two colonies were united as British Columbia.
The adhesive embossed postage stamps of the United Kingdom, issued during the reign of Queen Victoria between 1847 and 1854 exhibit four features which are unique to this issue:
Decimal Day in the United Kingdom and in Ireland was Monday 15 February 1971, the day on which each country decimalised its respective £sd currency of pounds, shillings, and pence.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of the Northern Nigeria Protectorate.
The postage and revenue stamps of the United Kingdom issued in 1887 are known as the "Jubilee" issue because they were issued during the year of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria to the throne in 1837. They continued in use throughout the remainder of Victoria's reign, and many of the designs were reused in the stamps of Edward VII. The Jubilee issue includes the first British stamps to be printed in two colours.
Holey dollar is the name given to coins used in the early history of two British settlements: Prince Edward Island and New South Wales. The middle was punched out of Spanish dollars, creating two parts: a small coin, known as a "dump" in Australia, and a "holey dollar". This was one of the first coins struck in Australia.
During the period when Heligoland was a British possession, about 20 postage stamps were issued between 1867 and 1890. There were up to eight printings of a single denomination and also a large volume of reprints which are known as the Berlin, Leipzig and Hamburg Reprints, respectively. The Berlin reprints are sometimes better quality than the originals. The reprints were done between 1875 and 1895. Consequently, many "old" collections contain reprints rather than originals. Some believe there were seven million reprints as compared to the known 1½ million originals, of which perhaps half were sold through the post office and the remainder sold to dealers when withdrawn from use. A few printings were never postally sold but nevertheless found their way into the hands of dealers. The stamps were printed by the Prussian State Printing Office in Berlin. They were denominated in the Hamburg Schilling until 1875, when both German Reich and British values appeared on each stamp issue. All are embossed with a silhouette of Queen Victoria excepting the four highest values which represent Heligoland escutcheons.
The Chalon Head is the name of a number of postage stamp series whose illustration was inspired by a portrait of Queen Victoria by Alfred Edward Chalon (1780–1860).
The postage stamps and postal history of Norfolk Island depended on Australia until 1947, when the island, an Australian territory since 1914, received its own stamps and postal autonomy.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Barbados.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon.
The English shilling was a silver coin of the Kingdom of England, when first introduced known as the testoon. A shilling was worth twelve pence, and there were 20 shillings to the pound sterling. The English shilling was introduced in the 16th century and remained in circulation until it became the British shilling as the result of the Union of England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.
This is a survey of the postage stamps and postal history of South Australia, a former British colony that is now part of Australia.
Canada 12d black or The Black Empress of Canada is the rarest Canadian postage stamp, issued in 1851. The 12-pence stamp shows the portrait of Queen Victoria and is the third stamp issued by the province.
The Melita issue is a series of dual-purpose postage and revenue stamps issued by the Crown Colony of Malta between 1922 and 1926, depicting the national personification Melita. They were commemorative stamps since they celebrated the islands' new status as a self-governing colony following a new constitution in 1921, but also a definitive issue intended for regular use over an extended period of time.
