Although I owned both a shilling and sixpence already, these were nicer specimens, and I couldn't resist. (I have a threepence as well, nicer than all the rest.)

When Elizabeth succeeded to the throne after the death of her older half-sister Mary, she inherited an economy in a shambles. Her father, Henry VIII had spent every last farthing on sumptuous feats, fashionable musicians, and lavish costumes. Bluff King Hal (as he was also known) debased his coins further and further in the effort to make a pound stretch further, with the predictable result that they were worth next to nothing in the 1550's. His shillings were more than half copper and when handled for any length of time the silver would seem to wear off, as it were, leaving the king's nose looking red. He was also known as Old Copper Nose...

Elizabeth began her reigh with a thorough overhaul of her kingdom's finances. First order of business, cut expenses. Second order of buisness, steal from the Spanish who were too stinking rich to be right in God's eyes anyway. And third, reform the coinage. She restored the silver content to the high value it had had under the frugal Henry VII, and did away with the medieval groat. The old four penny coin was replaced with a new denomination worth six pennies. Oddly, apart from the debased metal, it was identical in size and weight, and very little different in appearance. (The young queen didn't have a red nose.)

The shillling and sixpence shown here are about the size of a slightly large quarter and a half-dollar, but both are thinner than either of the modern coins. They were hammered, literally. Machine made coins (called milled) weren't for another 50 or 75 years yet. Another peculiarity was the absense of copper or other base metal coins. The very poor simply worked for their keep and never handled coin. Even the humble silver penny would have been a sizable amount of money. Imagine buying a newspaper or slice of pizza with nothing smaller than fifty dollar bills. You didn't. One bought in bulk and only the reasonably well off could.