Discovered Some Countries Don't Mint Anything. No Wonder I Can't Find.

Countries that don't exist anymore or countries that never existed?

There is a huge demand for coins for an OFEC set, and that drives the production of coins that might as well be considered fantasy issues. Lots of stumpers to grapple with in such a set:

- Real coins that really circulate for a country that doesn't exist - Examples would be the unrecognized yet de facto independent Transnistria between Ukraine and Moldova, and various "almost real" Micronations - I believe Seborga in Italy (an old loophole was found indicating that it was never legally incorporated into the Italian republic) and I have a Hutt River coin that is moderately circulated.

- As you mentioned, countries that use another currency for all transactions, but have NCLT issues of sometimes dubious legal tender status. Most members of the British Commonwealth, or territories or crown dependencies have coins that can be collected, but many exist only as collector issues.

- Since no laws protect non-existent countries, it's a free for all for private mints. There are fantasy coins issued for the Galapagos (a minimally-inhabited nature sanctuary), and even uninhabited islands in the Amtarctic.

Ivory Coast uses the coinage of the West African States monetary union; the West African States were formerly French colonies, which used to use the coinage of French West Africa. Upon independence in the 1960s, most of them chose to continue to use a common circulating currency.

The issuing of coinage has long been seen as a "right" of an independent country, so very few countries have never issued any official NCLT coinage at all. Ivory Coast has issued some NCLT. Neighbouring Burkina Faso, also a WAS member-state, has never issued an official coin in its own name.

There are plenty of unofficial coins from such countries, usually manufactured by coin dealers in Europe or North America to fulfill the demand from OFEC collectors.

As mentioned, the issuing of coinage is seen as a symbol of independence. So one of the first things many "unrecognized states" do shortly after proclaiming themselves independent is issue coinage. These coins too are considered "fantasies" and "unofficial coins", thoguh in their case, it is the country itself that is fake, rather than the coins.

The book Moxking is referring to is the "Unusual World Coins" catalogue put out by Krause. Coins in the UWC catalogue have "X" catalogue numbers, rather than the "KM" numbers that "real coins from real countries" have. You can find these unofficial / fantasy coins listed in the NGC coin database and similar Krause-derived world coin databases, though the unofficial coins will have "X" numbers given. Example fantasy coin from Ivory Coast on NGC; note the "X# 6" catalogue number.

I tried my best to make it to 300, but only ended up having 293 before the revamp hit.

Apparently I have 233 now (my residual OFEC attempts didn't quite stop after the revamp).

Yeah, I had over 300 countries catalogued in Numista for my OFEC collection and it dropped to 226 following the "revamp".

Gotta love peer to peer driven websites, huh?

I do think it's somewhat better now that Xavier took on a small team of people to help verify all the submitted data.












I couldn't tell you how many times Hutt River changed status, but it was more than a few.

I've always had a few coins here and there since I was a kid, but it wasn't until silver peaked in 2011 that I began to start seriously collecting. By simply wanting to amass a precious metals "safety net" in an ever dwindling economy, it ignited my passion for collecting again. And boy did I!
I started by buying Dansco albums in every type set I thought I could complete and soon I became addicted to online coin auctions. For the next few years, virtually all of my disposable income went towards coins for my collection. (See my profile page for details about my collection.) I couldn't stop until ALL of my various Dansco albums were complete. Now I've begun to take on some of the older, much harder(& expensive) type sets to complete like the silver dollars and large cents. But my true passion is in error and variety coins.....love 'em, lol. Oh, and my OFEC collection.

As for Numista.....it's completely free to join and use. Just remember, it's peer driven so it changes from time to time. But I highly recommend it to all collectors of US and foreign coins. It is virtually a fountain of knowledge.