This may be a dumb question but as a very new collector I wanted to satisfy my own curiosity. Does anyone on here have a coin from every current country in the world? If so, what countries that are no longer in existence do you have coins from as well? Thanks for sharing.
Country boarders are forever changing on the Earth. Please take a look at the Krause world coin catalogs for 1900-2000 and you will find several countries listed and how the real estate changes hands. Here is a coin from Biafra.
I have a coin for when the philipines was under the U.S., a coin from when Somalia was under U.N. trust to the Italian Government, a coin from when Somalia (former Afaars and Isaas) was controlled by the French, And a coin from the third reich (B mint mark) ((Not sure if this meets your criteria))? Anyways, I'm sure it would be a challenge to get one from every single country, mainly because some countries don't recognize the declarations of other countries being a soverign nation
I know of someone that collects coins from now dead countries. Quite a nice collection! With new coins being added all the time
Coins from countries that don't exist anymore? Does Sassanid Persia, hepthalites, sogdians, ancient Rome, Parthia, Carthage, etc count? If not, how about German states, Italian states, countries taken over by Russia? Sorry, end of rant. To answer your question OP collecting by country is a popular way to collect world coins. You get to define the parameters of your collection yourself, and include former countries as much as you wish. A friend has coins from every country back to 1800. I have never collected that way, but I bet I have a few hundred countries at least. Its a fun way to collect, and you can get almost all 20th century countries for almost free. World coin collecting is very cheap if you are just collecting by country.
Very cool coin collect89. Thanks for the input so far everyone. I have a very meager collection of coins from countries other then the US and they are only worth face value, but I have become very intrigued by foreign currency and ancients (don't have any of those yet).
Collect89 how did you get the coin from Ajman? Medoraman, would you be able to post pics of any of the ancient coins? I love the ancient coins I have seen on this site so far.
I would suggest a cheap copy of KM World coins for the 20th century. That will get you started, and let you know what is available. Just get a copy of it on Ebay for less than $10, you are not interested in prices, (that is another topic), but knowledge.
Nothing dumb about your question. Rather than just a single coin per country, I collect one coin per monetary regime, which increases the potential size of that collection to somewhere north of 1,500. (It's presently at a little over 300.) Among other things that makes it simpler to decide, for example whether the German Empire and the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) are 1 country, or two. For example, under Great Britain I have coins with busts of every monarch from George III through Elizabeth II (plus a scattered few earlier ones), and for Elizabeth I have both sterling and decimal coins. I also have multiple coins from countries such as Germany or Mexico, which have undergone both political and monetary changes over the years. It's not only interesting, but very historically educational.
Thanks Hontonai, I definitely agree its interesting and educational. I am always wondering who may have owned or held a coin, especially the older ones.
The last two pictures are just of junk box purchases I bought at CICF last year. They were 6 for $110. The first one was a close up of a group of Parthian and Sassanid coins I bought earlier this year as well. Not great pics, but I am infamous for being a bad photographer here. Most of my coins, (I have a few thousand ancients at least), I don't have pics of. I do have a better picture of my library. You can tell my priorities: This is a few years old, so I have added about 40 books since then. You don't need THIS many, but good reference books are invaluable in this hobby. Its money well spent. Chris
Lol, those aren't even my periodicals or history books. Those are in another bookcase. Ancients are a pretty literature intensive field if you want to delve into them fully. Great reading though. To be fair, most ancient collectors specialize in "normal" areas. My interests run the gambit from Greek, Roman, provincial, middle eastern, oriental, SE Asia, etc. I would not characterize my library as what is needed by most ancient or world collectors. Most would do fine with one shelf I have.
That particular coin was purchased from a World coin dealer named Allen Berman. After I had selected & purchased the coin, Allen said: "....I could sell that to anyone that does one per country". I used to post threads here at CT when I got a batch of World coins from an old-time collector. You can search for old CT threads from collect89 containing the word "batch". These old threads will show you some of the junk-box World coins that are all part of my collection today. You may also want to search old CT threads containing the words "per country".
I am envious of those that can collect one coin per country. How do you do it? I cannot collect just one coin per emperor or empress, let alone COUNTRY. Just last week a seller had 12 kushanshah coins of a type I hadn't seen for sale before. Guess how many I bought of the exact same TYPE?
This is the list of countries, territories or former states (including provinces and german states) I have at least one coin (from highest to lowest number of coins). Total 306: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA SPAIN UNITED KINGDOM FRANCE PORTUGAL CROATIA GERMANY REP. FED. DENMARK ITALY MEXICO POLAND CANADA HUNGARY BRAZIL TURKEY INDIA SWEDEN YUGOSLAVIA RUSSIA BELGIUM GREECE SLOVENIA AUSTRALIA ARGENTINA CUBA NETHERLANDS AUSTRIA PERU MALTA CHINA THAILANDIA SWITZERLAND CHECOSLOVKIA CZECH REPUBLIC NORWAY ROMANIA SOUTH AFRICA VENEZUELA LITHUANIA FINLAND TUNISIA ISRAEL JAPAN MOROCCO SYRIA USSR SOVIET UNION CHILE GIBRALTAR BULGARIA LATVIA ALBANIA COLOMBIA NICARAGUA BOLIVIA ICELAND PANAMA SLOVAKIA PHILIPPINES URUGUAY EGYPT ECUADOR SOMALIA GERMANY DEM. REP. IRAN IRELAND BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA ESTONIA NEW ZEALAND SOMALILAND WEST AFRICA CYPRUS GUATEMALA HONG KONG COSTA RICA SINGAPORE UKRAINE NORTH KOREA SOUTH KOREA MALAYSIA MYANMAR PARAGUAY DOMINICAN REPUBLIC SAMOA BAHRAIN INDONESIA MAURICIO SERBIA Tajikistan BARBADOS IRAK KUWAIT LEBANON LUXEMBOURG MOLDOVA NAMIBIA ALGERIA JORDAN KENYA MALAWI St. Helena and Ascension SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE SRI LANKA TANZANIA CONGO REP. DEM. DJIBOUTI UNITED EMIRATES ARAB ETHIOPIA HONDURAS FALKLAND ISLANDS KAZAKHSTAN MACAO MACEDONIA OMAN PAKISTAN SWAZILAND TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO YEMEN ARAB REPUBLIC ANDORRA ARMENIA Bangladesh EAST CARIBBEAN STATES EL SALVADOR FIJI GUYANA ISLE OF MAN JAMAICA JERSEY TURKMENISTAN NETHERLANDS ANTILLES SAUDI ARABIA BERMUDA BRUNEI KYRGYZSTAN NEPAL TAIWAN UZBEKISTAN VIETNAM AFGHANISTAN ANGOLA BOTSWANA GEORGIA GHANA GUERNSEY CAYMAN ISLAND LAOS MALDIVES MONGOLIA NAGORNO Karabah PAPUA NEW GUINEA SEYCHELLES TRANDSNIESTRIA CENTRAL AFRICA BAHAMAS ERITREA BRITISH INDIA DUTCH INDIA LIBYA MONACO MOZAMBIQUE FRENCH POLYNESIA TONGA ZAMBIA ZIMBABWE GERMANY III REICH REP GERMANY WEIMAR ARUBA BELIZE BHUTAN CAPE VERDE COMORES GAMBIA EQUATORIAL GUINEA INDOCHINA FRENCH SOLOMON ISLANDS BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS MAURITANIA NIGERIA PALESTINE SURINAME VATICAN ZAIRE EAST AFRICA EQUATORIAL AFRICA AFRICA OCC. FRENCH GERMANY EMPIRE Brunswick-Lüneburg BURUNDI CAMBODIA CAMEROON CONGO REP. DU FRANKFURT HAITI HANNOVER COOK ISLANDS KIRIBATI Lesotho LIBERIA MALAYA & BRITISH BORNEO MUTAWAKKILITE NEW CALEDONIA QATAR REP. Sahrawi Arab RHODESIA SAN MARINO SIERRA LEONE TIBET TIMOR TOGO UGANDA GERMAN EAST AFRICA ALDERNEY SOUTH ARABIA Ascension Island AZERBAIJAN AZORES BADEN Bahawalpur BAVARIA BENIN Bernese Oberland BELARUS Bohemian-Moravian BRITISH GUIANA BRITISH HONDURAS CABINDA CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC CHAD Cochin BELGIAN CONGO CRETE CURAÇAO DANZIG DEMARABY ESSEQUEBO FRENCH AFFARS ISSAS FRENCH SOMALILAND GABON GREENLAND GUINEA GUINEA BISSAU PORTUGUESE GUINEA Hesse Darmstadt HUNAN Hutt River Province DANISH INDIA PORTUGUESE INDIA ISLAND Stoltenhoff FAROES GALAPAGOS ISLANDS MARSHALL ISLANDS EASTER ISLAND PITCAIRN ISLANDS GEORGIA AND S. SANDWICH ISLANDS ITALIAN SOMALIA KATANGA KEELING COCOS KURDISTAN LIECHTENSTEIN LIVONIA MADAGASCAR MADEIRA MALAYA MALI MAUI Mecklenburg-Schwerin MONTENEGRO MUSCAT AND OMAN NASSAU NEW BRUNSWICK NEWFOUNDLAND NIUE NOVA SCOTIA NEW GUINEA New Hebrides FRENCH OCEANIA PALAU PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND PRUSSIA DUBAI-QATAR REUNION ISLAND Reuss-Schleiz SOUTHERN RHODESIA Rhodesia & Nyasaland RWANDA RWANDA-BURUNDI SAARLAND SAINT PIERRE ET MIQUELON SAXONY SANTA HELENA SARAWAK SARDINIA SCHAUMBURG LIPPE SPITZBERGEN STRAITS SETTLEMENTS SUDAN Tatarstan TOKELAU TUSCANY Tristan da Cunha TURKS & CAICOS TUVALU VANUATU North Vietnam YEMEN REP. DEMOCRATIC WESTFALIA WURTTEMBERG ZANZIBAR