THE KING'S SHILLING

Here's a George III shilling from 1817 which I found in a muddy puddle on a country walk many years ago. It's much more worn than it looks here, and it's wafer thin, but I often wonder whether it fell unnoticed from a toff's pocket or whether the loss of it meant a hungry week for a poor family.

During my very short career in the Girl Guides we used to have the equivalent of the Scouts' "Bob A Job" week, which I seem to recall was called "A Shilling For The Willing". Please can anybody confirm this, or was it just another of my Dad's jokes that got locked into my memory! If it's true, then it was definitely a sign of more innocent times!