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Posted 10/06/2014 02:56 am
The omission of Tibet from my list was indeed accidental; it should be included. With my mighty moderator superpowers, I shall now go and add it in. I'll also add "New Guinea / German New Guinea" while I'm there.
However, the "German States" issues are much more questionable. Pre-1871 German states I do indeed regard as "separate countries", but we're talking 20th century here, and I don't regard the German States of post-1871 as a monetary union of separate countries. The reverses of each of these coins are identical, the design dictated from above, and name the country of issue: "Deutsches Reich", the German Empire. The different heads of state or coats of arms of free cities named on the obverses of coins 2 marks and above are, to my mind, little different to the "English" and "Scottish" shillings of Great Britain from the mid-20th century. The only difference with Germany is that the mints remained under the control of the states, rather than the Imperial government, so the states gained profit directly from the issue of "their own" coinage. People are of course free to include them in their list of "20th century countries" if they wish; personally, I choose not to.
Likewise, I have not listed all the Chinese provinces - which, during the early 20th century, were de-facto independent states, each one larger and more populous than most European countries, each one under the control of a separate warlord with little interaction between the provinces (except occasionally to ban each other's coins from circulating) or with the nominal central government. If the German States are to be included, then the Chinese Provinces have even more right to be included.
However, the "German States" issues are much more questionable. Pre-1871 German states I do indeed regard as "separate countries", but we're talking 20th century here, and I don't regard the German States of post-1871 as a monetary union of separate countries. The reverses of each of these coins are identical, the design dictated from above, and name the country of issue: "Deutsches Reich", the German Empire. The different heads of state or coats of arms of free cities named on the obverses of coins 2 marks and above are, to my mind, little different to the "English" and "Scottish" shillings of Great Britain from the mid-20th century. The only difference with Germany is that the mints remained under the control of the states, rather than the Imperial government, so the states gained profit directly from the issue of "their own" coinage. People are of course free to include them in their list of "20th century countries" if they wish; personally, I choose not to.
Likewise, I have not listed all the Chinese provinces - which, during the early 20th century, were de-facto independent states, each one larger and more populous than most European countries, each one under the control of a separate warlord with little interaction between the provinces (except occasionally to ban each other's coins from circulating) or with the nominal central government. If the German States are to be included, then the Chinese Provinces have even more right to be included.
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
