Posted 12/16/2011 03:02 am
Just to clarify, is your target a "1 whatever" from each country, or a "1/100th of the primary currency unit" from each country, or the smallest coin denomination issued by each country, or "closest in face value to 1 cent" for each country?
This Wikipedia page gives every currently circulating currency unit, and names it's fractional unit as well. But this list may have little to do with the actual coins that are being issued. Not every country starts at 1 cent (or whatever it's called) and works their way up from there. In Australia, for example, we no longer have 1 cent coins - the smallest denomination is 5 cents. In New Zealand, the smallest is 10 cents. The now-obsolete drachma was the primary currency of pre-euro Greece, divided into 100 lepta, while the peso is usually divided into centimos, centesimos or centavos (depending on the country).
Some countries either no longer have, or never have had, any fractional units in their currency. In Japan, for example, the smallest coin is 1 yen - but originally, there were 100 sen to the yen. Likewise, in French Polynesia and New Caledonia, the smallest coin is 1 franc, originally divided into 100 centimes but centime-denominated coins have not been issued since 1949. Denmark recently abolished the 50 ore coin, leaving the 1 krone coin as the smallest in circulation there. And Vanuatu has never had any fractional currency unit for the vatu.
And, of course, not every country issues the full range of denominations for circulation every year. Several countries don't issue any coinage at all, using either coinage form neighbouring countries or no coins at all, only paper money. So any set of coins for any one particular year will likely have many countries missing.
But if you give us your target year, we'll see if we can come up with a comprehensive list.
This Wikipedia page gives every currently circulating currency unit, and names it's fractional unit as well. But this list may have little to do with the actual coins that are being issued. Not every country starts at 1 cent (or whatever it's called) and works their way up from there. In Australia, for example, we no longer have 1 cent coins - the smallest denomination is 5 cents. In New Zealand, the smallest is 10 cents. The now-obsolete drachma was the primary currency of pre-euro Greece, divided into 100 lepta, while the peso is usually divided into centimos, centesimos or centavos (depending on the country).
Some countries either no longer have, or never have had, any fractional units in their currency. In Japan, for example, the smallest coin is 1 yen - but originally, there were 100 sen to the yen. Likewise, in French Polynesia and New Caledonia, the smallest coin is 1 franc, originally divided into 100 centimes but centime-denominated coins have not been issued since 1949. Denmark recently abolished the 50 ore coin, leaving the 1 krone coin as the smallest in circulation there. And Vanuatu has never had any fractional currency unit for the vatu.
And, of course, not every country issues the full range of denominations for circulation every year. Several countries don't issue any coinage at all, using either coinage form neighbouring countries or no coins at all, only paper money. So any set of coins for any one particular year will likely have many countries missing.
But if you give us your target year, we'll see if we can come up with a comprehensive list.
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
