I have seen quite a bit of bad feelings on the South Asian Yahoolist stemming from the release of Krause Publications digital catalogs calling the modern coins of India and surrounding regions "Central Asian". Their point is that that term is appropriate for places farther north like Uzbekistan but not for India and what I have always called South East Asia. Making matters worse it appears that Krause won't address the question reminding me of a level I've seen from friends from some places in the UK that get really riled when they are called 'English'. As a collector of ancient and medieval coins from the region (before anyone invented the country names and boundries we see today) this seems much ado about nothing but I gather there is an opportunity to be politically incorrect here without meaning to be offensive. Can someone discuss what is considered the proper compass point subdivisions of Asia both modern and ancient? (I assume China and Japan are 'East' but after that there are questions). What is the border between South and Central? What should I call coins of the Shahis of Kabul and only slightly later Delhi? What part of Asia did the Sasanians and Hephthalites rule? It is hard to draw divisions that hold up over three thousand years of history but Krause seems to have managed to stir up trouble in a catalog that covers very little in the way of time.
Doug, I collect a lot of coins from this area of the world. To me, India, (ancient India encompassing modern day Pakistan and Bangladesh), and Burma pretty much is South Asia. East Asia is what you described, China, Korea, Japan, Mongolia. Central Asia is west of China, south of Siberia, and East of the Black Sea and north of India. Parthia and Sassania consisted parts in the middle east and parts in Central Asia, while most Hepthalites ruled in Central Asia except for the later issues coined in India. Issues like this and Shahis are hard, since technically they switched from Central to South Asia, even though to them it wasn't that far. I lump all of my Hepthalites into Central Asia since they minted more time there than South Asia. I could be wrong, this is just what I get from my readings on Central Asia and numismatic classifications. Hope this helped. I do have the series printed by the UN, "Central Asia" and the geography I describe matches their coverage in these books as well. Btw, which Yahoo newsgroups is the controversy on? I subscribe to them all but admit much of the time do not read them.
http://www.southasiacoins.org/ It's not a controversy since no one there seems to disagree that Krause blew it.
I would agree with them. I have never heard India called Central Asia. It would be like Krause lumping US coins in "Coins of Central America". I wouldn't call this PC, but more cultural insensitivity and lack of education of the region. If Krause cannot even get a region's name correct, what confidence will you have in their coin values? Btw I would agree with their definition of South Asia on the website except for maybe Afghanistan. Historically this has been lumped into Central Asia, at least most of modern Afghanistan has. Its a tiny difference of opinion though.