Ancient Coin Issuing Nations

Seems like it might be an interesting undertaking. I have no idea but would like to see what you come up with.

I don't know how the list compares with GCV, but there's always the Wildwinds Greek City-Region-and-Ruler index. You'd need to go through and delete all the duplicate entries for "kings" of the larger kingdoms and empires and there are some countries listed there (such as Aksum and the Indo-Scythians) that aren't listed in GCV or GIC, but it's certainly a start.

Recall that the concept of "nation" or "country" was a lot fuzzier back then; "nationalism" had not yet been invented. The Greek tradition was that each city was self-governing - if you could put a wall up around your city, that made your city a de-facto independent country; anybody who wanted to rule over you had to get through your wall first. Even if your city was large and wealthy enough to have founded colonies, those colonies very quickly (usually within a generation) became independent city-states in their own right, with little or no loyalty shown to their mother-city.

"Kingdoms" or "empires" that conquered multiple cities and even entire regions were something that was imposed on Greek culture from outside - by the Persians, Macedonians, Carthaginians and Romans. Greeks rarely ruled over other Greeks very well or for very long; whenever one city (such as Athens) became powerful enough to start doing so, the other cities would all gang together and beat them up. This tendency to fight and squabble amongst themselves proved very handy to those surrounding empires, who frequently prodded one city or faction into war against another until everyone was so weaked and war-weary they were easy pickings for conquest.