Which map is correct

Basically, me and my brother got into an argument as to how to map your collection country wise or historically. His argument was that former entities like the USSR doesn’t count for Russia and the ‘Stans on a modern map, he also says that colonial coins don’t count for their modern day countries, for example, British East Africa doesn’t count for Uganda, Kenya etc. I however argue that they should count as those coins were once used in those territories as legal tender and is also counted on Numista.

As you can see, many things from his version are missing from Numista since I only had their historical colonies or empires, this means I don’t have most USSR modern countries . I also argued that past currencies shouldn’t count in that case such as a relatively modern 1970’s Brazil coin which is obviously Brazil but a currency long forgotten so it shouldn’t count. Please give your opinion on this.

A solution to this would be to have different historical appropriate maps to choose between.

A modern generic map will never show “correct” geopolitical situations.

every person will have a different take and even the way numista maps out countries past and present is not the be all and end all.

however I’m curious how would your brother plot USSR and British East Africa on the Numista map? or in his view they don’t count. If they don’t count, they must be worthless, in which case I’ll happily take them off his/your hands ;) 

Well I don’t know about worthless… but thanks!

(now I’m just waiting for a general consensus)

p100

A solution to this would be to have different historical appropriate maps to choose between.

A modern generic map will never show “correct” geopolitical situations.

I’ll try but that’ll be hard

I think that a former country that is a union like the USSR covers several modern countries, it should count as a coin from all of those countries, but if it’s something like Nazi Germany, it shouldn’t count as a Polish coin (it actually counts on this website) v

I would argue that your brother is correct, in that if the issuing nation no longer exists, then it shouldn't count on the map.

Because otherwise, you end up with a fairly untrue map. Like getting a single ancient Roman coin would highlight most of Central & Western Europe, as well as bits of Eastern Europe & North Africa.

I would rather my map ignored them. I don't have any Algerian coins yet Algeria, via virtue of some of its modern territory was Roman, is highlighted for me.

Of course, having historic maps wouldn't be much use either because the borders fluctuate so much.

Easiest solution would be a “Would you like your map to include states which no longer exist: Yes/No”, but how practical that would be to code is a whole other issue.

Honestly, I would love a Yes/No switch for historical maps, but I think the current system works fine as to be fair, past coins were once used in those lands such as USSR coins in Georgia and I really think it comes down to whether these coins were used and not the countries itself. Also having historical maps would be a mess as many past entities overlap with each other since not all coins were made in one year. If Numista did have such historical maps, then they would have to add a slider of some sort to ask of which year items were made since territories like the Ottoman Empire fluctuate between years of ww1 and more. There are so many problems to historical maps that just isn’t as simple as Yes and No. To be really accurate, Numista would have to have a map of every year to show territories and the coins you have in that year specifically. Bringing up my previous point, These maps aren’t about countries, I feel the map should be about whether or not that coin was once used in that country/ land/ Area, (eg:- A Half Penny from British West Africa was once used in Sierra Leone so it should count on the map.).

I am going with Numista as many countries have changed boundaries over centuries and millenia and even in Europe every few decades with WW1 and WW2 and then communism starting and ending. Like a Roman empire coin that is so worn, you can't see which mint it came from or like someone said with African colonial coins from supercolonies like French West Africa and British East Africa, which are now multiple countries.

Take my 1801 Spanish Pillar Dollar, designed in Spain, with Spanish king, in Spanish currency and in Spanish, yet minted in Mexico, using Mexican silver and intended for use in Mexico and neighbouring colonies - is that coin Mexican or Spanish and should it highlight Mexico or Spain on the map or Mexico on it, or even both? Because Mexico only became independent in 1821, therefore it was part of Spain before 1821 and in 1801, yet this coin likely never went near Spain and it may have saw use when New Spain became the United States of Mexico (Its true name - Estados Unidos Mexico).

Real chicken and egg stuff here!

I go with modern countries mostly, like I just finished saying my Abbasid dirham was likely minted in Iraq in the 700s, yet Iraq proper only started in 1923, it was parts of various empires and known as Mesopotamia, Ur, Babylonia, Assyria, Ummayya etc.

Too muddy if we map coins from distant eras on a modern map, but no issue with ascribing them to the entity that minted them in the Catalogue.