How Many Are There Really? - Last Page

Posted 04/13/2008 01:51 am

Collecting "one from every country" isn't easy, for several reasons:

1. As has been stated, "country" is a very vague term, and it can be hard to exactly pin down your "target list". If "countries currently in existence" is your goal, then the CIA factbook, Britannica Book of the Year and similar volumes are sufficient. Note that these lists may not include colonies and dependent states, like Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, French Polynesia, Cocos-Keeling Islands, etc etc.

If you want "all countries that existed between 1901 and today", then the simplest way of obtaining a list is to do what GO suggested: get yourself a Krause catalogue, and work off the "country index".

2. Some countries don't make circulation coins. They're either using the coinage of another country, using coins of a monetary union (like the Euro), or not using coins at all, only paper money.

Down the bottom of my wantlist, I have a list of currently existing countries I don't have coins from; these countries have only ever issued expensive, made-for-collectors coins, so I don't really consider them as "essential" for my OFEC set.

3. Not every "real country" that has existed has issued coins. Some countries and territories simply haven't bothered (most of the American territories, like Guam, the Northern Marianas, US Virgin Islands, etc, have not). Some countries simply didn't exist for long enough to issue coins (Trieste Free State comes to mind), while other "countries" (such as Mayotte, Neutral Moresnet and the Palestinian Territories) have had disputed or ambiguous status, and no-one has issued coins for them.

4. Not everywhere that has issued coins was a "real country". Chinese provinces, Mexican civil war states, Spanish civil war districts, Argentinian provinces - these have all issued their own coins since 1901 and they're listed in the Krause index, but they're not considered independent countries. You have to decide whether they're essential for your OFEC list or not.

Finally, there are places like Hutt River Province that have unilaterally seceded from somewhere, but lack any sort of formal diplomatic recognition. "Coins" from such "countries" might look like real coins, but you won't find them in the regular coin catalogues.

(Slightly edited for factual accuracy)

Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis

Edited by Sap
04/13/2008 05:08 am

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