Hey Snowman How Many Entities?

I can't speak for Snowman's definitions, but I've currently got 663 coin-issuing entities in my database. I should note that it includes a few ancient Greek and Roman city-states as separate entities.

As for my definitions: as a general rule, I do consider a mere name change to be sufficient grounds for a "change in entity". I separate Ceylon and Sri Lanka, for instance - and this name change doesn't quite coincide with the change in government (British colony to Republic). I separate Myanmar and Burma, and the country formerly known as Zaire gets five listings: Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo-Ruanda-Urundi, Congo D.R. (Kinshasa) and Zaire.

However, I will admit to being somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent. I do tend to prefer the change of name to be clearly visible on the coins, and officially the name of Siam/Thailand flip-flopped between the two options between 1939 and 1949. This ambiguity, plus the fact that the coin inscriptions aren't in a Western alphabet, makes me file Siam and Thailand under one entry: Thailand.

I don't consider the various regime changes in France (nine in all) as separate entities (except for Vichy France, the German WWII puppet state) while Vietnam gets four entities: prewar communist, North, South, and postwar communist.

As for "how many are there", that depends on how far back you go. The area known as Germany today contained, prior to the 1800's, hundreds of little tiny coin-issuing entities. And if you count each and every coin-issuing ancient Greek city-state, the answer is in the thousands.

I count a little different than Sap does. Changes in government do constitute a different entity in my opinion. In your example Siam would be an absolute monarchy and Thailand would be a constitutional monarchy. To me that's two different entities. You could further break Siam down by the 6 local provinces that produced their own form of money, the tin pitis. Then there is the Japanese invasion government that minted their own coins during WW II (good luck finding one though). That brings us to 9 and I haven't even begun talking about bullet money from the 17th and 18th century.

Sure I'm liberal in what my view of an "entity" is, but it's a lot more fun collecting coins that way.