King's Shilling

A shilling was a silver coin worth 12 pence and was the daily wage of a soldier during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

On a labourer's entering employment with a new master for the next year, he would be given a shilling coin as a symbol of his new employment. A recruit to the army or the Royal Marines likewise was given a shilling coin to mark his entering the King's service.

It was the aim of all recruiters for the Army to enlist as many men as they could, and one favourite trick was to slip a shilling into a tankard of beer so that the unwary drinker would remove the coin and could thus be deemed to have 'taken the King's shilling' - to have volunteered.

'To take the King's shilling' was thus slang for enlisting into the Army.