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 Replies: 127 / Views: 6,066 |
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
4934 Posts |
Numista says that my collection contains coins from 221 countries and 402 issuers. The country count used to be much higher than that; there's been some reorganizations recently.
(AFAIK their current definition of "issuer" conflates some cases that I would distinguish as well, such as Belize and British Honduras.)
Before they had introduced issuers, I was well in the running for the 300 country club; I didn't quite make it, though - the day before the big reorganization, my collection included "only" 294 countries. Since then 300 countries had been rendered very hard and more recently entirely impossible, and 300 issuers became relatively easy.
Note that all of the above relates to my collection as it was when I still lived in Moscow; I had to leave it all at home (still hope to return some day...) and didn't bring very many coins with me.
Since then there's been some new additions, but I hadn't taken remotely full stock of them yet. I estimate that the country count of my local collection would probably be somewhere around 50-70, but I hadn't looked at it closely enough recently to estimate more precisely.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1805 Posts |
It all depends on how you define countries by geography, issuing authorites, rulers, goverments, NCLT, fantasies, states like German & Italian, etc, etc.
300 can be a piece of cake as you get back farther in time.
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Moderator
 United States
157664 Posts |
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300 can be a piece of cake as you get back farther in time. That is part of my problem. As of now I only go back to 1806. 
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1805 Posts |
Going back to 1808 you could do 200 countries or more in just days or weeks.
One or two might take a very long time to get.
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Moderator
United States
157664 Posts |
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Going back to 1808 you could do 200 countries or more in just days or weeks. Something to consider after I complete my other goals. 
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2532 Posts |
According to numista I have coins from 435 issuers, though I haven't logged a lot of my Indian States or Roman coins on it yet.
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Valued Member
 United States
114 Posts |
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Moderator
United States
157664 Posts |
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Just added country #124 by finding a Croation coin underneath a Coinstar-type machine Fantastic! 
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
718 Posts |
I'm vaguely trying to get a coin from every current independent country (about 193). However, many don't currently issue coins (as they are in unions like the Euro or Eastern Caribbean Dollar) and a few of those, like Burkina Faso, have never issued any coins.
Edited by JohnConduitt
10/21/2023 07:52 am
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
4934 Posts |
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and a few of those, like Burkina Faso, have never issued any coins. Burkina Faso does have some NCLT commemoratives AFAIK? But it's confusing which of those were official. Back when I was still doing OFEC I almost bought a supposed Burkina Faso coin but looked it up and found out it was unofficial. To the best of my knowledge the only currently independent countries that have never issued coins, even NCLT, are Micronesia and Kosovo; Palestine counts as well if you include it in your list of independent countries. But many others, especially in Africa, had only ever issued NCLT. A few others (Montenegro and I forgot what else) hadn't issued any coins in their current iteration but had issued coins in previous stretches of independence.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21593 Posts |
I would guess? around 100 countries and all cultures, covering the whole of numismatics,
since the inception of coinage, 26 centuries ago.
My OFEC :
- one from every century
- one from every culture**
At least one representative
** ancient Greek, ancient Roman, ancient Chinese, ancient Indian, medieval Indian, Parthian, Sassanian, early Islamic, Indo Greek, Byzantine, South East Asian, European medieval hammered and milled, Spanish and Portugese Empires, as well as modern (mainly silver and bronze) coinages, up to about 1950, when silver began to be withdrawn from the World's circulating currencies.
About 1,000 coins have a date between 1800 and 1950.
Have a small collection of about 20 pattern and major error coins (mostly European), including piedforts, and off metal strikes. From what I can figure, I have the World's 2nd largest collection of machine struck square coins - 60 different types, - a guy in Denmark has the biggest.
The collection comprises about 1,500 coins all together, and is still growing; it has taken me about 50 years to build.
I also attempt to actively collect at least one example of every new design of Australian coin that may come my way from pocket change, at face value, just as a kid would do. Have about 250 different design types dating from 1966, when Australia commenced a decimal currency system. Definitely no NCLT collector coins represented.
Edited by sel_69l
10/22/2023 06:46 am
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5016 Posts |
I certainly would not rely on numista's definition of a country. I see that Britannica lists 196 countries, but I have not checked their definition.
I doubt that there is a universally agreed upon definition, and there will always be doubtful cases. Using my own ideas, I identify 186 places that currently issue coins that do or could circulate. I'm missing 2 recent additions to that list: French Pacific Territories and South Sudan.
There are a number of other places that most people would call countries but either do not issue coins or issue only Non-circulating ones.
You can slice and dice and classify things in many different ways. If you add the former states, cities and provinces of all these countries, you could add 1000-2000 to the country list.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21593 Posts |
Too right ! |
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Moderator
Australia
16181 Posts |
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To the best of my knowledge the only currently independent countries that have never issued coins, even NCLT, are Micronesia and Kosovo; Palestine counts as well if you include it in your list of independent countries. But many others, especially in Africa, had only ever issued NCLT. You can add "Nauru" to the list of countries that have never issued coinage. There are plenty of quasi-NCLT "coins" out there in the name of Nauru, but they are all unofficial, struck without the permission or authority of the Nauru government.
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
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1805 Posts |
South Sudan  |
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Replies: 127 / Views: 6,066 |
First Page
Posted 07/20/2023 5:14 pm
