Background from earlier thread:
"The "taking of the king's/Queen's shilling" was presumed when the Navy "Press-ganged" men from the pubs of an earlier time. Recruitment officers would provide a round of drinks for men who appeared well intoxicated, and a shilling would be found in the bottom of the tankard or in the mouth, hence showing that the men had "Accepted the shilling". The men would wake up the next day already at sea.

The above practice would not have worked with glasses, but at the time pewter tankards were the norm. This cheap trick led to the development of taknkards with glass bottoms, so that the contents could be viewed before imbibing. One enterprising firm has now started producing tankards with a shilling embedded in the transparent base as a reminder of times past.


Nigel