an English money of account, equal to fourpence. Other nations, as the Dutch, Poles, Saxons, Bohemians, and French, have likewise their groats, groots, gachen, gros, and the like. In the Saxon times, no silver coin bigger than a penny was struck in England, nor after till Conquest, till the reign of Edward III., who, about the year 1351, coined grosses or great pieces, which went for farthing each; and so the matter stood till the reign of Henry VIII., who, in 1504, first coined shillings.