 The value of one shilling equalling 12d was set by the Normans following the conquest; prior to this various Anglo-Saxon coins equalling 4, 5, and 12 pence had all been known as shillings.The first coins of the pound sterling with the value of 12d were minted in 1503 or 1504 and were known as testoons.The testoon was one of the first English coins to bear a real (rather than a representative) portrait of the monarch on its obverse, and it is for this reason that it obtained its name from an Italian coin known as the "testone", or "headpiece", which had been introduced in Milan in 1474.