Your country needs you! Writers, ethusiasts, report here! (CCIP-Country Introductions)

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Hello everybody! <:D

Some time ago, new feature of country introductions was added. You can see it here on example of Tibet: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/tibet-1.html

However, most of the countries, even those very known and with many users, still do not have their introductions. Down here is the list of countries without introductions, you (everybody) can write it down and I will publish it on the site then. Just leave them here, or PM me with your introduction of some of those countries and you will have good feeling of having your text on the site! <:D

Example of good introduction (good length): Tibet

Tibet is an autonomous region in the south west of the People's Republic of China. From 1912 until 1951 it was effectively an independent country, though never recognised by a majority of other states. Tibet is located on the Tibetan heights north of the Himalaya. It is also nicknamed 'The Roof of the World'. Its culture and language are distinct from China or India, but influences from both sides exist.

Longer introductions are contra-productive, as there is no possibility to format the text. Longer text will be good for future Numisdoc articles, which will have links in country introductions.

List: (As always, I will BOLD those which are done)
Anguilla
Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina
Argentine provinces - will be divided, we will need introductions for all of them in future
Aruba
Austria
Austria - Habsburg
Austrian States - will be divided, we will need introductions for most of them in future
Bahamas - Too short
Barbados
Belarus
Austrian Netherlands
Belgium
Liege
Belize
British Honduras
Benin - Now has some sort of description in Dahomey
Dahomey - not full description
Bermuda
Bohemia - will be divided, we will need introductions for several of them in future
Moravia
Brazil - too brief
British Antarctic territory
British East Indies
Tortola
Brunei - too brief
Bulgaria (can be longer)
Burundi - too brief
Canada
Canadian provinces
Newfoundland
Cape Verde - too brief
Central Africa (BEAC)
Chad
Chile - too brief
China - Empire
China - Republic
Cilician Armenia
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia
Comoro Islands
Belgian Congo
Zaire
Crimea
Crusader states - in future, they will be separated, so we will need introductions for all of them.
Cuba
Czech Republic
Bohemia and Moravia
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Faroe Islands
Greenland (can be longer)
Djibouti
French Afars and Issas
French Somalia
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Africa
Eastern Caribbean
El Salvador
Equatorial African States
Eritrea - too brief
Falkland Islands - too brief
Finland - too brief
Brittany
France - Oh my!
France -Feudal
France - kingdom
French cities
Guadeloupe
Lorraine
Martinique
Reunion
French Equatorial Africa
French Oceania
French West Africa
Gabon - too short
German Democratic Republic
German Notgeld
German States - we will need introduction for every country there...
Germany 1871 - 1948
Germany - Federal republic
Saar
Greece
Grenada
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Demerara & Essequibo
Guyana
Honduras
Hungary
Hunnic Empire
Iceland
India
India-British
India-Danish
India-Dutch
India-French
India-Mughal Empire
India-Portuguese
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Ivory Coast
Jersey
Jordan
Kyrgyzstan
Livonia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania (too short)
Luxembourg
Malawi
Malay Peninsula
Malaya
Malaya and British Borneo
Mali
Malta
Malta, Order of
Marshall Islands
Mauritania
Mauritius (too short)
Mexico
Revolutionary Mexico
Moldavia and Wallachia
Moldavia (medieval)
Wallachia (medieval)
Monaco
Montserrat
Morroco
Nauru
Nepal (ancient)
Burgundian Netherlands
Dutch Republic
Frisia
Netherlands
BES islands
Curaçao
Netherland Antilles
Netherland West Indies
Saint Eustatius
Nicaragua
Niger
Biafra
Niue
North Korea
Spitsbergen
Oman
Palau
Panama (too short)
German New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Peru
Pitcairn Islands
Duchy of Courland
Azores
Madeira
Qatar (too short)
Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Romania (too short)
Ruanda-Burundi
Ruanda-Urundi
Livonia and Estonia
Russia (too short)
Russia - Empire
Russian Caucasia
Siberia
Soviet Union
Tatarstan
Ascension Islands
Saint Helena
Tristan da Cunha
Nevis
Saint Kitts
Saint Kitts and Nevis
San Marino
Hejaz
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Italian Somaliland
South Africa
South Africa - Boer Republics
South Korea
Spain
Spain - Civil war
Spanish states
Spanish Netherlands
St. Bartholomew
St. Lucia
St. Vincent
Suriname
Sweden
Swiss cantons
Switzerland
Togo
Tokelau
Tobago
Trinidad
Ajman
Fujairah
Ras al-Khaimah
Sharjah
Umm Al Qaiwain
United Arab Emirates
England
Scotland
United Kingdom
Hawaii
United States
United States - Pre-Federal
Uruguay
Vatican City
Venezuela
Venezuelan provinces
South Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam-Empire
Western Africa (BCEAO)
Windward Islands
Yemen - Arab Republic
South Arabia
Yemen - People's Democratic Republic
Yemen
Yemenite states - we will need all of them in the future
Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia
Zimbabwe

PS: Politically motivated introductions will be amended to be as much neutral as they can be. We are here because of coins, not because of politics.
Catalogue administrator
Angola is a country in south west Africa between the Congo river and Namibia and was a Portuguese colony from 1575 until 1975. The country has a population of 26 million.
The Principality of Andorra is a country in South West Europe encapsulated between Spain and France. It has a population of 85,000 and is one of Europe's microstates. The official language is Catalan, which is the second most spoken language in Spain.
Alderney is a Channel Island and part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which in turn is a British Crown Dependency. The island has a population of 2,000. Alderney uses the Guernsey Pound, but has issued collector coins in its own name.
Thank you! I uploaded them now! <:D
Catalogue administrator
Newfoundland:

First settled by various First Nations tribes, then by the Norse around the year 1000, the island of Newfoundland was officially discovered by Europeans by John Cabot on behalf of the king of England in 1497. Used for some time as seasonal fishing territory by the English, French, Portuguese, Basque and Spanish until being claimed as England's first colony overseas in 1583. Boasting unique species of plant, insect, animal and even a race of humans, Newfoundland enjoyed self-government from 1855-1934 and held Dominion status from 1907-1949 before joining Canada as the country's youngest province.

Can be shortened or lengthened on request.
Anguilla is a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the northernmost of the Leeward Islands and has a population of around 14,000. Anguilla was first colonised by Europeans in 1660 but the majority of the population is of West African descent. From 1967 to 1971 the island was officially part of Saint Kitts & Nevis but broke away in order to retain ties with the UK. Anguilla uses the East Caribbean Dollar but has issued collector coins in its own name.
Antigua and Barbuda is a country of two islands in the north part of the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean. The English colonised the islands from the 17th century and they became independent in 1981. Most of the population of 90,000 live on Antigua, with only 1600 residing on the island of Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda use the East Caribbean Dollar but have also issued collector coins in its own name.
This one's for ya Jarcek ;)

Czechoslovakia was a nation-state birthed in 1918 from the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of WWI. It was the most democratic state in Central Europe during the interwar period, but the first Czechoslovak Republic ultimately came to an end after being menaced by Nazi Germany in 1938, after which the Western betrayal forced the Czechs to give up the Sudetenland, and later became annexed under the protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia until the Soviet Liberation in 1944-45, after which Czechoslovakia was forcibly made to join the Warsaw Pact as a communist state in 1955. The Prague spring uprising in 1968 was brutally crushed by Soviet troops, but by 1989 the communists in Czechoslovakia were weakened, and the newly-democratic Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia following the Velvet Divorce in 1993.

And a few more;
Bohemia and Moravia was the official name of a Nazi protectorate situated in the non-German majority areas of the former Czechoslovak state between 1939 and 1944/5. It was administered as part of Greater Germany, following the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, while Slovakia became an independent puppet state. This political entity ceased to exist following the Soviet liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, and the former country of Czechoslovakia was reinstated after the end of the war.

Austria was ruled by the Hapsburg family for centuries between the 12th and early 20th centuries, following it's establishment in the Alps in the 1200s. It rapidly expanded in power throughout the Middle Ages until it was powerful enough to become elector of the Holy Roman Empire, through royal marriages and alliances, to Spain, Italian states and the Netherlands. Gradually, however, the Habsburgs lost control of these lands, and focused their power in Vienna, which grew to incorporate the Hungarian lands after Ottoman invasion in 1525, repelling them from Vienna in 1683. This empire lost Silesia to Prussia in 1740, and defeats throughout the 18th century and Napoleonic wars led to it's gradual weakening, until the establishment of the Austrian Empire in 1804, and the HRE's dissolution in 1806. The Congress of Vienna was established to keep power following Napoleon's defeat in 1815, but the liberal revolutions of 1848 tore the nation apart, with the Austro-Hungarian compromise reached in 1867 after the loss of power to Prussia in Germany in 1866. Austria-Hungary grew more dependent on Germany throughout the late 19th century, and when tensions in the Balkans sparked WWI in 1914, the Empire collapsed due to ethic tensions in 1918, imploding into half a dozen new nations.

Belgium is a small country in northwestern Europe, founded in 1830 after a breakaway from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, supported by France and Britain as a neutral state. It's neutrality was guaranteed by the Concert of Europe, and ruled by the Saxe-Coburg royal family throughout the 19th century, gaining the large Congo Free State under Lèopold II in 1885, famously exploiting the native peoples for rubber production until 1908. The German Schliffen plan in 1914 violated Belgium's Neutrality, resulting in Britain's entry into the 1st World War, and the occupation of Belgium until the armistice of 1918. Belgium between the wars cooperated with France, occupying the Ruhr in 1923-5, but withdrew into neutrality in 1936, which was once again violated by the Nazi invasion of 1940, to bypass the French Maginot Line, and the country was occupied until the liberation in late 1944. Following the war, the country was bitterly divided between the Wallonais, and Vlaandeerns until Lèopold III's abdication in 1950, following which the country joined NATO (OTAN) and became a founding member of the EEC in 1957. Currently it is a dual-linguistic country that most notably houses the EU's headquarters in Brussels.

Belgian Congo was the name given to the Congo Free State following it's accession to the Belgian government in 1908 due to international diplomatic pressure from the world, after reports of human rights violations in the rubber plantations there came to light. It was enlarged slightly with the acquisition of Ruanda-Urundi in 1919 from German East Africa after WWI, and served as the base for the Free Belgian Forces in Exile during WWII from 1940-1945. It gained independence in 1960 from Belgium as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Cuba was a former Spanish colony from it's discovery by Christopher Columbus in 1492, until the tensions generated by local resistance to Spanish rule in the rebellions of 1869 resulted in yellow journalism spurring the 1898 Spanish American War, which saw the US end Spanish rule on the island, which became a new independent republic in 1903. The US supported various regimes on the island, such as Batista's in 1952-59, until the communist Castro regime took over in 1959, establishing a communist state 100 km off the US' Florida coast. The tension generated by a failed invasion by Cuba commandos on the island at the Bay of Pigs was heightened the following year by the deployment of Soviet missiles on the island by Khrushchev in 1962, which almost resulted in nuclear war, until the gradual backing down, with the removal of nuclear missiles from Cuba. The country still remains communist in theory, but has since opened up to the West, with Castro's death and the reestablishment of diplomatic relations in 2016. It is now the largest Caribbean island country by landmass.

Djibouti was a former French colony from it's acquisition by French colonial administrators from the dying Ottoman Empire in 1894, who had ruled it since the 15th century in the form of various sultanates, and was administered as the French Somalian Coast (Côte des Somalis Français). It was invaded by the forces of Mussolini's Italian East Africa in 1940, but was liberated by Free French and British troops in 1941, whereupon it switched allegiance to the Free French in 1942. It hosted referendums in 1960, 1967 and 1977, on the subject of continued association with France, until the 1977 one allowed the newly- renamed Territoires des Affairs et des Issas independence as the Republic of Djibouti, which exists until today as a small nation on the Red Sea in Eastern Africa.

Eritrea was a former Ottoman Eyalet territory from the 15th century until it's ruler, the Ottoman vassal of Egypt broke away. It was subsequently colonized by Italy in 1889, as the 'Colonia Eritrea'. A failed attempt to expand into Abyssinia by Italy in 1896 resulted in the colon being limited in size until the 1935 invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini's forces. The country was liberated by Allied forces in 1941, and assigned to Ethiopia following the end of the war in 1945, until the late 1980s, when Eritrea broke away from Ethiopia following a brief war of independence that ended in 1993. Today it is a small poverty-wracked country in Eastern Africa.
few more; it was seriously hard to concentrate my knowledge of French history into a paragraph.

France is a large country in Western Europe founded by Clovis I in 496 after the dissolution of the Roman province of Gaul after the Western Roman Empire's fall in 476 AD. It was one of the domains of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, becoming known in 9th century Europe as West Francia. Throughout the Middle Ages, France expanded in size and power considerably, stopping the Moors at the battle of Tours, and then incorporating smaller kingdoms such as Normandy and Brittany into the Kingdom of France. Various medieval wars were fought against England (1337-1453), the Italian States (1494-1497) and the Holy Roman Empire (1618-1648), with the country becoming an absolute monarchy under the Bourbon dynasty in the 16th century. It expanded into the greatest power in continental Europe in the 17th century under Louis XIV's conquests in various wars of succession, but the loss of France's American colonies in 1763 to Great Britain marked the beginning of a period of stagnation, made worse by the financial deficit created by the funding of America's rebellion in 1778-1783, eventually culminating in the French Revolution of 1789, creating an unstable Republic in 1792, with instability eventually quelled by the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1799 and 1804, France's eventual domination of Europe ended with his defeats at Borodino and Leipzig then Waterloo in 1815. The unstable regimes set up in France in the 19th century saw various revolutions in 1830, 1848, 1852 and 1871 saw Germany overtake France as the major European power after Napoléon III's defeat at Sédan (1870), and France's alignment with Britain and Russia in the lead up to WWI, which again saw France become the major power in Europe. This ended with appeasement in the 1930s leading to the fall of France early in WWII in 1940, with the Free French under Charles de Gaulle eventually liberating the occupied and puppet regimes of Vichy France by 1944 with Allied help. Decolonization and the establishment of the 5th Republic under De Gaulle contributed mostly to the making of modern France, which today is the largest country on the continent, and co-founder of the EEC/ EU.
The Kingdom of France was one of the domains of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, becoming known in 9th century Europe as West Francia. Throughout the Middle Ages, Royalist France expanded in size and power considerably, stopping the Moors at the battle of Tours, and then incorporating smaller kingdoms such as Normandy and Brittany into the Kingdom of France. Various medieval wars were fought against England (1337-1453), the Italian States (1494-1497) and the Holy Roman Empire (1618-1648), with the country becoming an absolute monarchy under the Bourbon dynasty in the 16th century. It expanded into the greatest power in continental Europe in the 17th century under Louis XIV's conquests in various wars of succession, but the loss of France's American colonies in 1763 to Great Britain marked the beginning of a period of stagnation, made worse by the financial deficit created by the funding of America's rebellion in 1778-1783, eventually culminating in the French Revolution of 1789. The Bourbon monarchy was, however briefly restored in 1815-1830.
(just the Top part of the French history paragraph).

French Equatorial Africa (Afrique Equatoriale Française, AEF) was a French colonial territory in Central Africa comprised of the various colonial provinces of Tchad, Gabon, Moyen-Congo, and Ubangi-Shari, united into one administrative entity in 1910 following their acquisition by France in the Scramble for Africa. The colony provided troops for France during WWI, gaining the Cameroon afterwards, and was the first to switch allegiance under it's Governor Fèlix Éboué to Free France under de Gaulle and General LeClerc in July 1940. It's composite parts eventually gained independence from France in 1960 as Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Chad.

French West Africa (Afrique Occidentale Française, AOF) was a French colonial territory in West Africa comprised of the various colonial provinces of Sénegal, Niger, Dahomey, Côte d'Ivoire, Haute-Volta, Guinéa, Soudan Français, and Mauritanie. It was united into one administrative entity in 1895, where slavery was abolished there in 1905. It supplied troops to France in WWI, afteer which it also gained as a mandate of France, Togoland. In November 1942 it switched allegiance to Free France under de Gaulle, and stayed that way until the end of the war. After the war, tensions resulted in a colonial referendum being held in 1957, following which the constituent territories of French West Africa gained independence as Sénegal, Guinea, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Benin, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, all by 1960.

The Saar is a territory on the western Rhine border of Germany, which was occupied by France following the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It was leased to France, with it's plentiful coal mining resources for 15 years, until a 1935 plebiscite returned the region to Germany. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Saar was once again given to France as part of reparations, this time for 10 years, where coins were minted for the territory, until 1955, when it was returned to the Federal Republic of (West) Germany as a sign of goodwill for the creation of the EEC.
:love: Wow'! Some housework to do and then let's go uploading those! Thank you all!
Catalogue administrator
I was wondering if you could give us an idea of what is too long. the example us fairly brief but some of the ones that have come after are fairly lengthy and some are listed as too short (all of which are great reads). So I was wondering if you could suggest a range that is acceptable, potentially an ideal number of lines?
That France paragraph is very Max. It would be better if it was shorter. Tibet example has about 400 characters. Eritrea has about 600. And France has over 2000. I know this is hard, but it would be nice if it was not bigger than 1000 characters.

In France case, I will probably shorten it by first (medieval part) as our France listing starts with French revolution.
Catalogue administrator
Since I've absolutely nothing better to do (like prepare for my mock exams), heres bits more

Finland was an integral part of the Swedish Empire for centuries until it's defeat in 1809 in the Russo-Swedish war, whereupon it was transferred to Russian control. For the next century, it was the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, that broke away from the disintegrating Russian Empire in 1917 following the chaos of the February and October revolutions of 1917. Briefly a German puppet state until the Hohenzollerns' defeat in 1918, the new Finnish Republic was menaced by an expansionist Soviet Union in 1939, which it stopped amazingly in the Winter War of 1939-40, only conceding minimal territories to the Soviets. This induced Finland's brief alignment with the Axis powers from 1942 to 1944, and after the war, Finland opted for non-aggression with the Soviet Union. Today, it is a Scandinavian nation in north-eastern Europe, aligned with NATO and the EU.

The GDR (Deutsch Demokratische Republik, DDR) was a communist state created by the Soviet Union out of it's occupied territory of Germany following the end of the 2nd World War. the new country was established in 1949 as a response to the union of the British, American and French sectors into the German Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) the year before. It became a police state under Walter Ulbricht following the uprising of 1953, and erected the Berlin Wall in 1961 around the West German exclave of West Berlin to stop intellectuals from escaping the the West. It is famous for the Stasi, secret police, as well as the many attempts to stop escapees from escaping to West Berlin. In the 1980s, lack of Soviet support saw the local communist regime collapse, and the Berlin Wall was knocked down overnight in November 1989, ending decades of separation in 1990 with the reunification of Germany, and the subsequent accession of East Germany to the German Federal Republic.

Following the unification of Germany by Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1870-1 after the defeat of France, the advances in Kulturkampf and Realpolitik saw the increasing stabilization of the new German Empire, who had been able to keep a delicate balance of European power under Bismarck, but which had collapsed under the heady ruthless foreign policies of the young, headstrong Kaiser Wilhelm II, crowned in 1888. This effectively alienated the Triple Entente to Germany, and divided Europe into two hostile camps. Germany's naval arms race and colonial disputes in Morocco did little to stabilize power, and ethic tensions within it's ally Austria- Hungary's neighbours led to the outbreak of WWI in July 1914. The failure of the Schliffen Plan to neutralize France rapidly led to a stagnant trench warfare on the Western Front on French and Belgian soil against the British and French for four years. In 1918 peace was conducted after the Russian Revolutions of 1917 with the Bolsheviks, but the declaration of war by the United States on Germany bolstered the Allied war effort on the Western Front, and Germany's armistice on the 11th of November, 1918, following the deposition of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the proclamation of the new Weimar Republic. The unstable young Republic was threatened from extremist factions, and experienced hyperinflation in it's early years, but was soon stabilized under Stressmann, until the Great Depression hit in 1929. The high rates of German economic turmoil allowed for mass support for the NSDAP under Adolf Hitler, allowing his rise to power in 1933, and his menacing of Germany's Versailles borders, annexing Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939 respectively. Rearmaments allowed for the new Nazi state to become totalitarian, and war broke out in September 1939 following the invasion of Poland. The new Blitzkrieg tactics of the early war allowed for Germany to overrun vast parts of France and the Soviet Union in 1940-41, but the Allied war effort was bolstered by American production and Soviet tenacity, causing the tide of war to turn by 1943, and Allied forces moved in from all fronts, from Poland, Italy, and France, eventually taking Berlin by April 1945. Germany's unconditional surrender following Hitler's suicide was proclaimed on the 9th of May, and the country was split into occupation zones of British, American, French, and Soviet territory, until the consolidation of these zones into West and East Germany respectively.

The German Federal Republic (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) was founded by the Western Allies by consolidating their zones of occupation in 1948. This resulted in the Soviets creating the GDR (Deutsch Demokratische Republik, GDR) using their zone of occupation in 1949, and blockading the Western sectors of Berlin in 1948 which was resolved by airlifting supplies in. It created the EEC in 1957 with France, signing the 1963 Elyssé Treaty to normalize terms with the 'hereditary enemy'. Following the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961 around West Berlin, tensions grew between the two German states, with Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik attempting to restore relations between the East and the West in the late 1960s. Tensions grew once more in the 1980s with the advent of nuclear warheads in West Germany, but the end of the decade saw the Berlin Wall knocked down in 1989, and the reunification of Germany in 1990 into one state (the effective accession of the GDR into the German Federal Republic). Nowadays Germany remains one of the most powerful states in continental Europe and subsequently in the European Union, as well as a key member of NATO.

Greece is a country in Southeastern Europe with a rich cultural history going back thousands of years to the time of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates and Pythagoras. The nation was, however occupied by the Muslim Ottoman Empire following the defeat of Byzantium's Empire in 1453, until the Greek war of Independence broke out in 1821, resulting in Greek independence from Constantinople. The new nation was ruled by a Bavarian royal family from 1832 onwards, and requisitioned the Ionian islands from Britain in 1864, slowly reclaiming more of it's territories, such as Thessaly and Epirus (1881), and Crete, following international intervention, annexed in 1908 to Greece. The 1912 Balkan War allowed for Greece to expel the Ottoman Empire from Macedonia, and reclaimed Eastern Macedonia from Bulgaria following it's joining of the Allied war effort in Salonica in 1917. In 1920, it reclaimed the Aegean islands, and deposed the monarchy in 1922, but had it restored in 1935 under Georgios II.
Greece was under the Metaxas regime from 1936 until 1939, after which it was aligned with the Allies against Germany and Italy in WWII, Athens being occupied after April 1941. Partisans continued to resist until the end of the war in 1945, after which a bitter civil war erupted between communists and nationalists, backed by the British Army. The Greek monarchy was deposed again in 1974, after which the Third Hellenic Republic gradually transformed the birthplace of democracy into a democratic state once again. Today Greece is a popular tourist destination, famed for it's well known historical landmarks and Mediterranean climates.

Hungary is a small modern nation in central Europe, formed around 896 AD (allegedly) by Magyar Huns who had migrated from the Central Asian steppes. The Kingdom of Hungary converted to Catholicism around 1000 AD, after which it suffered repeated invasions by the Mongols in the 13th century, and then the Ottomans in 1525, after which it slowly became weaker, and was gradually absorbed by either the Ottoman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, or Habsburg Austria. In the 17th century, Hungarian forces helped repel the Turks from Vienna, and the Austrian Empire gradually requisitioned all the former Hungarian lands from the Ottoman Empire. Hungary was included in the formation of the Austrian Empire in 1804, but nationalism in 1848 resulted in an uprising of the oppressed Hungarian peoples, which was later pacified with the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867. Hungary was an equal part of the Empire until 1918, when the implosion of Austria-Hungary saw a new Hungarian state birthed from the chaos. A local Soviet Republic was birthed, but defeated, and the Regency of Hungary, greatly reduced in size after the Treaty of Trianon, remained relatively stable under Admiral Mikios Horothy, who backed the Axis powers of WWII until 1944, when Soviet troops reached Hungary and set up a puppet communist regime there following local instability and hyperinflation. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was brutally crushed by Soviet tanks, and the country remained in the Warsaw Pact until 1989, when the Iron Curtain fences were taken down on the Austrian border. Today Hungary remains a democratic EU member state, in Central Europe with lots of heritage.

British influence in India began in the early/mid 17th century, with the founding of trading posts on the coast by the East India Company. The expansion of the East India Company's influence in India involved playing local warlords off each other, and throughout the 18th century most other European colonial presences in India were minimized in the Seven years War (1756-1763). The Carnatic Wars further helped weaken the local Mughal and Maratha Empires, and by 1830 British influence stretched from Bombay to Bengal. Conslidation of this power, combined with the East india Company's inept rule, led to the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857-8, after which control of British India was transferred to the Crown in 1862, with Queen Victoria assuming the title of 'Empress of India' in 1877 from Disraeli. By 1900, the British Raj expanded from Baluchistan and Punjab to Ceylon and Burma, with wars constantly being fought with the Afghans on the North-west frontier. British India supplied troops to Britain on the Western Front and in Mesopotamia in WWI, but throughout the 1920s and 1930s nationalist sentiments under Mahatmas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru brought the Indian Nationalist Congress to demand independence. British India was threatened by Japan in 1942, but saved at the Battle of Imphal, after which the Bengal famine caused by food diverted to British troops fighting in Burma occurred. By the end of the war, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee agreed to organized Indian independence under the UN Partition Plan of 1947.

French colonial presences in India began in the early 17th century, after which the expansion of French colonies was precipitated under Louis XIV. The Seven Years War, however saw British General Robert Clive take most of France's colonial possessions in India, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the only French possessions left in India were Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagnore, Yanaon, and Karikal, each only comprised of a few small port cities. France maintained these out of 'sentimental value', tiny outposts in the British Raj. They were invaded in 1942 and transferred to Free France, under de Gaulle, but were given up to the Republic of India in 1954.

Portuguese presence in India began with Vasco da Gama's voyages in 1498, and by the early 16th century, Portuguese trading posts in India had already been established, at Bombay and Goa. They were briefly Spanish until Portugal's independence in 1640. By the 18th century, however, most of these ports had been traded to England following Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. By the 19th century, Portugal maintained parts of this trading post empire in the form of Goa, and Diu and Daman, which issued coins of it's own in Rupias. The Portuguese revolution of 1910 did not de-stabilize these colonies, and only in 1961 were they returned to the now independent India.

In the mid 19th century, nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi helped the House of Savoy unite the Italian states from 1859-1861 into the Kingdom of Italy, which requisitioned Lombardy (1861), Venice (1866) and Rome (1870) from various foreign influences throughout the wars of the 1860s. Italy became a great power in the late 19th century, and colonised East Africa. However, at home, irredentist sentiments fuelled the nation's entry into WWI in 1915 on the Allied side, and resulted in stalemate in the Alpine Front until Austria-Hungary's collapse in 1918 following the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, gaining South Tirol and Istria-Dalmatia. The unsatisfactory peace of 1919 spurred the rise of Mussolini's fascism in 1922 following the March on Rome, and by the 1930s Italy was menacing Abyssinia and Albania. Her alignment with Nazi Germany in 1936's Rome-Berlin Axis saw Italy join the war in June 1940, but was defeated by numerically inferior Allied forces in East Africa, and Greece, requiring German reinforcements, which too were repulsed by the Allied forces, who landed in Sicily, ending up in Mussolini's disposition and Italy switching sides, resulting in a German puppet state being set up in the north of Italy. Rome was liberated by the Allies, and peace returned to Italy in 1945, with the monarchy being abolished in 1946. Since then, post-war reconstruction has since transformed Italy into a prosperous nation, a founding member of the EEC in 1957, and one of the G7 powers in the world today.
Quote: "Jarcek"​That France paragraph is very Max. It would be better if it was shorter. Tibet example has about 400 characters. Eritrea has about 600. And France has over 2000. I know this is hard, but it would be nice if it was not bigger than 1000 characters.

​In France case, I will probably shorten it by first (medieval part) as our France listing starts with French revolution.
​Yea, we could put the first half of France in France-Kingdom instead.

I'll start writing from the time the listings begin on Numista.
Austria is a small German speaking, mountainous Alpine country in Central Europe. It was founded in 1918 after the dissolution of the centuries old Habsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary following WWI into half a dozen nations. The new Republic of German-Austria, as it was known until 1920, attempted to unify with the Weimar Republic, but was unsuccessful in 1920, and endured political and economic turmoil throughout the 1920s and 1930s. After Hitler ordered the assassination of Chancellor Dolfuss in 1934, the new Austrian Federal Republic edged closer to fascism, after Mussolini's Italy dropped it's objections to an annexation, Austria voted overwhelmingly for Anschluss with Germany in March 1938, becoming the Ostmark province. In 1945, Allied troops liberated and occupied the Ostmark, which was split into 4 separate occupation zones like Germany. It was allowed to become a new nation in 1955, under the condition of permanent neutrality. It has since become a successful member state of the EU, and famous for it's South Germanic culture and historical sites.

German New Guinea (Deutsch-Neuguinea) was a former German Colony comprising the northeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea, and the Bismarck archipelago, founded after it's initial settlement in 1884. It was the major German colonial territory in the South Pacific, issuing rare coinage only in 1894-95 in bronze, silver and gold. In 1914, when the First World War broke out in Europe, Australian forces quickly captured the colony from their postings in nearby British (Australian-administered) Papua. The territory was formally surrendered in 1915, and given to Australia as a mandated territory of the League of Nations in 1919-20, here it became part of the Mandate of New Guinea until 1975.

Romania is a large eastern European country by the Black Sea, formed out of the former territories of Moldova and Walachia, both vassal territories of the Ottoman Empire, in 1859, under international pressure following the Crimean War. The 1878 Congress of Berlin formalised it's autonomous status, freeing it from Ottoman rule. In 1912 it was involved in the First Balkan War, seizing Dobruja from the crumbling Ottoman Empire, and it joined the Allies in 1916 during the Great War, getting almost completely occupied by the Central Powers until 1918, when it recieved large parts of Transylvania from Hungary in the Treaty of Trianon (1920). It became an effective parliamentary dictatorship in the late 1930s, under Ion Antenescu, who aligned Romania with the Axis powers in 1941, to reclaim Bessarabia and North Bukovina from the USSR. Romania gave up some land to Hungary in exchange for Moldova during the war, but it surrendered to the advancing Soviet army in 1944, and following 1945 was restored to it's 1941 borders, as a member of the Warsaw Pact under communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, until his overthrow in December 1989, and Romania became a democratic state, joining the EU in 2007.

Hawaii was an independent Polynesian island kingdom, discovered by James Cook in 1778, and influenced by Britain and the United States throughout the 19th century. However, when an attempt by the Queen to expel American influence from the islands was discovered in 1891, the US Marines stormed the palace and annexed Hawaii to the US as a territory in 1895, building a naval base there which famously became the casus belli for the American entry into WWII in 1941 following it's Japanese bombing. It was formally admitted into the union as a state in 1959, and currently is famous as a tourist destination around the world.

Togo is a small French-speaking West African country. It was first colonised by Leo Caprivi for the German Empire in 1884/5 during the Scramble for Africa, but it was taken by the Allies in 1914 following the outbreak of WWI in Europe that year. After the war, it became a French mandate (Togoland), administered as part of French West Africa from 1919, minting coins for the territory, with a brief interlude in 1940-42 as part of Vichy France, until 1960, when it became the independent state of Togo, which still exists today.

Italian Somaliland (Somalia Italiana)was an Italian colony that was formed in 1889-90 on the Horn of Africa , administered as part of Italian East Africa. Coins were minted for it in the first decade of the 20th century, after a failed invasion of Ethiopia in 1896 precipitated a successful invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (Abyssinia) in 1935 by Mussolini's forces. In 1936 it was unified with the newly conquered Ethiopia and Eritrea, another Italian colony in East Africa, to form Italian East Africa (Africa Orientale Italiana). After Italy's entry into the war in 1940 on the Axis side, the colony was quickly overrun by Allied forces in Africa in 1941, with Ethiopia and Eritrea becoming the Ethiopian Empire's new territories, and Somalia becoming an Italian UN Trust Territory in 1950 until it's independence in 1960 as Somalia.

The Boer Republics were established in the mid 19th century by Dutch settlers in the Cape Colony who had been forced to emigrate northwards into former Zulu territory, following Britain's acquisition of the Cape Colony in 1802 during the Napoleonic Wars. These Voortrekkers established republics such as Oranje (1854) and Transvaal (1852) during the 'Groot Trek' of the 1830s and 1840s. They were invaded by the United Kingdom in 1881, but managed to repel British forces in the First Boer War, staying independent as the ZAR (Zuid-Afrikaanische Republik) until the end of the Second Boer War (1899-1902), following the discovery of gold and diamonds on the settlers' territories in 1902, whereupon the former ZAR was incorporated into the Union of South Africa with the Natal and Cape Colony in 1910, with a brief resurrection in 1914-5 that was defeated by South African troops. They are currently integral parts of South Africa still.

Spain's Civil War broke out in 1936 as a response to the atheist Republican Second Spanish Republic and it's supporters, backed by the Soviet Union and an international brigade of socialist supporters, against the poor strata of the countryside, backed by the Catholic Church, and later the Fascist states of Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, under Generalissimo (Caudillo) Francisco Franco. The civil war acted as a proxy conflict for fascism against communism and democracy, with aid pouring in from foreign powers. The German Condor legion famously bombed the Basque town of Guernica in 1937 during this war, and many townships under the occupation of the opposing side's forces minted their own coinages during the civil war. The war ended with the fall of Republican Catalonia to the Franco-iste Nationalists in 1939, and the final battle of the Alicante pier ended in Republican forces fleeing to France, or surrendering.
Quote: "CassTaylor"​Spain's Civil War broke out in 1936 as a response to the atheist Republican Second Spanish Republic and it's supporters, backed by the Soviet Union and an international brigade of socialist supporters, against the poor strata of the countryside, backed by the Catholic Church, and later the Fascist states of Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, under Generalissimo (Caudillo) Francisco Franco. The civil war acted as a proxy conflict for fascism against communism and democracy, with aid pouring in from foreign powers. The German Condor legion famously bombed the Basque town of Guernica in 1937 during this war, and many townships under the occupation of the opposing side's forces minted their own coinages during the civil war. The war ended with the fall of Republican Catalonia to the Franco-iste Nationalists in 1939, and the final battle of the Alicante pier ended in Republican forces fleeing to France, or surrendering.​
​Thanks for your work, Cass, but as a Spaniard, I can see half of the population of our country deeply offended by this intro, especially the first sentence. The Spanish Civil War is still a very touchy issue, so this needs to be as ideologically discharged as possible.

I do not have the time today, but tomorrow I could write another version, if the community agrees with me.
Referee for Burundian and Estonian coins.
Keep the discussion on acceptable level. I will be checking them before adding and even if added, it can be easily changed. Anyone can write another version or suggest amendments.
Catalogue administrator
Quote: "fryant"
Quote: "CassTaylor"​Spain's Civil War broke out in 1936 as a response to the atheist Republican Second Spanish Republic and it's supporters, backed by the Soviet Union and an international brigade of socialist supporters, against the poor strata of the countryside, backed by the Catholic Church, and later the Fascist states of Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy, under Generalissimo (Caudillo) Francisco Franco. The civil war acted as a proxy conflict for fascism against communism and democracy, with aid pouring in from foreign powers. The German Condor legion famously bombed the Basque town of Guernica in 1937 during this war, and many townships under the occupation of the opposing side's forces minted their own coinages during the civil war. The war ended with the fall of Republican Catalonia to the Franco-iste Nationalists in 1939, and the final battle of the Alicante pier ended in Republican forces fleeing to France, or surrendering.​
​​Thanks for your work, Cass, but as a Spaniard, I can see half of the population of our country deeply offended by this intro, especially the first sentence. The Spanish Civil War is still a very touchy issue, so this needs to be as ideologically discharged as possible.

​I do not have the time today, but tomorrow I could write another version, if the community agrees with me.
​Of course, I understand- it might be better to leave things of such nature to those closer to it.
Sorry for this little piece of English grammar (French grammar is way harder):

Possessive pronouns:
He: His
She: Her
It: Its

It's = it is
Quote: "CassTaylor"
​​Togo is a small French-speaking West African country. It was first colonised by Leo Caprivi for the German Empire in 1884/5 during the Scramble for Africa, but it was taken by the Allies in 1914 following the outbreak of WWI in Europe that year. After the war, it became a French mandate (Togoland), administered as part of French West Africa from 1919, minting coins for the territory, with a brief interlude in 1940-42 as part of Vichy France, until 1960, when it became the independent state of Togo, which still exists today."

I suggest this as possible basis for revision. (I would appreciate learning how to end a quote in a reply, as this is the first time I have used this feature.)

"Togo is a small French-speaking West African country. The German Empire colonized Togoland in 1884/5 but in World War I it was occupied by the Allies and was then divided into French and British mandates (later UN trust territories). British Togoland was administered with the Gold Coast colony and in 1957 merged with Gold Coast to form Ghana. French Togoland was administered from 1919 until 1960 (under Vichy French control 1940/42) as a territory of French West Africa, with its own coinage. In 1960 the French trust territory became independent as Togo."

Will






Russia /Mother Motherland, Rus'- Matushka/. Also known as "Heartland", "Heart of the World".
The greatest and richest state on Earth.
A country with a grand thousand-year history. Homeland of Russian civilization.
People of this civilization have expanded the horizons of mankind from the depths of the human soul (by russian literature) to open space (by russian cosmonauts).
The land, for many incomprehensible, frightening with its vast expanses, but no less attractive.

For the insight of Russia you should not use your brain.
And measurement of Russia in common yards is vain.
It has a very special and very unique gist...
A great belief in Russia you ought just to persist.
Canadian Provinces
During the period 1794 to 1867, Great Britain's foreign policy was to maintain rigid control of the British North American colonies. Colonies were to produce the raw materials needed by the homeland and to pay for imported goods in what the mother country considered legal tender. As the local colonial economies grew the need for circulating coinage became quite acute because they were constantly short of legal tender coins. Consequently the colonists resorted to their own ingenuity and produced many local tokens from many sources, including counterfeits. This coinage has been the subject of numismatic study for over 100 years.
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.  It's what you know for sure, that just ain't so.  Mark Twain
Quote: "7doktor"Russia /Mother Motherland, Rus'- Matushka/. Also known as "Heartland", "Heart of the World".
​The greatest and richest state on Earth.
​A country with a grand thousand-year history. Homeland of Russian civilization.
​People of this civilization have expanded the horizons of mankind from the depths of the human soul (by russian literature) to open space (by russian cosmonauts).
​The land, for many incomprehensible, frightening with its vast expanses, but no less attractive.

For the insight of Russia you should not use your brain.
​And measurement of Russia in common yards is vain.
​It has a very special and very unique gist...
​A great belief in Russia you ought just to persist.
​I dunno, maybe just a tad bit slanted in favour of Russia...? Just saying, i could write volumes about the virtues of France.
Edit, I get the probable humour in this by the way. :)
As promised, for Spain - Civil War:

After a period of a deeply grave political and social instability under the Republican government of the Popular Front led by Manuel Azaña and Francisco Largo Caballero, on July 18th, 1936, a section of the Spanish army under the command of Generals Mola, Sanjurjo, and Franco carried out a coup d'etat in an attempt to gain control of the country. The coup failed to achieve its immediate goal, but managed to split the country in two and start a civil war that would last until April 1st, 1939. The Nationalist faction, led by Franco after the death of Mola and Sanjurjo on two different airplanes crashes, and supported by Germany and Italy, achieved a complete victory over the Republican side, backed by the Soviet Union. After three years of a total war that left the country devastated, 500.000 people killed and an open wound that still often bleeds through the Spanish political and social debate, Francisco Franco established a right wing dictatorship and ruled the country with an iron hand for the following forty years, until his death on November 20th, 1975. During the war, both Nationalists and Republicans laid claim to the peseta, forbidding the use of the other side's money in their controlled zones and thus taking the war to an economic level. In practice, two parallel currency systems were established, both being traded in international markets as two distinct currencies. On top of that, a lack of circulating coinage soon was suffered all over the country, given that the population massively hoarded the silver coins in order to profit from its intrinsic value, having both sides to resort to emergency measures. In the case of the Republican side, these measures included the creation of coin-stamps. Due to the unavailability of materials on both sides and the progressive collapse of the Republican government, many local and regional administrations, and even private institutions, were forced to mint their own emergency coins.
Referee for Burundian and Estonian coins.
Quote: "fryant"​As promised, for Spain - Civil War:

​After a period of a deeply grave political and social instability under the Republican government of the Popular Front led by Manuel Azaña and Francisco Largo Caballero, on July 18th, 1936, a section of the Spanish army under the command of Generals Mola, Sanjurjo, and Franco carried out a coup d'etat in an attempt to gain control of the country. The coup failed to achieve its immediate goal, but managed to split the country in two and start a civil war that would last until April 1st, 1939. The Nationalist faction, led by Franco after the death of Mola and Sanjurjo on two different airplanes crashes, and supported by Germany and Italy, achieved a complete victory over the Republican side, backed by the Soviet Union. After three years of a total war that left the country devastated, 500.000 people killed and an open wound that still often bleeds through the Spanish political and social debate, Francisco Franco established a right wing dictatorship and ruled the country with an iron hand for the following forty years, until his death on November 20th, 1975.

​During the war, both Nationalists and Republicans laid claim to the peseta, forbidding the use of the other side's money in their controlled zones and thus taking the war to an economic level. In practice, two parallel currency systems were established, both being traded in international markets as two distinct currencies. On top of that, a lack of circulating coinage soon was suffered all over the country, given that the population massively hoarded the silver coins in order to profit from its intrinsic value, having both sides to resort to emergency measures. In the case of the Republican side, these measures included the creation of coin-stamps. Due to the unavailability of materials on both sides and the progressive collapse of the Republican government, many local and regional administrations, and even private institutions, were forced to mint their own emergency coins.
Ahh, now I remember studying that war for Hemmingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. I always lamented that we (France) and Britain never intervened on the Loyalist side. I can nonetheless see why it might be explosive in Spain today though.​
These are way too long. x. Keep them for future Numisdoc, but I will have to shorten them a little.
Catalogue administrator
I am breeding on a shorter version
@Jarcek have tried to shorten these as much as possible; but do cut reasonable amounts to your satisfaction.

The Soviet Union (USSR, CCCP) was created in 1922 out of the original 7 Soviet Socialist Republics created following the fall of the Provisional Russian Republic in November 1917 to the Bolsheviks, and the subsequent Russian Civil War. It's early financial history resulted in the issue of various silver roubles, and their subsequent demonetisation as power was consolidated into the hands of Josef Stalin in 1929. The coat of arms of the country changed as more Soviet republics were admitted into the union. Following various economic 5 year plans and systematic political purges in the 1930s, the country expanded following it's attack by Nazi Germany and subsequent stint in the Eastern Front of WWII (The Great Patriotic War) between 1941 and 1945, expanding it's influence into a band of satellite states in it's occupied states of Eastern Europe called the Warsaw Pact, officialize in 1955. It successfully pioneered space exploration and travel in the 1950s and 60s, but following a detente in the ongoing Cold War against the Western World, the reactionary glasnost and perestroika of Gorbachev in the 1980s brought about a period of openness in the USSR, and subsequently the collapse of the communist world in 1989, and of the USSR itself into 15 independent republics (the CIS) in December 1991.

The Russian Empire was an absolutist empire in Eurasia, the largest in land mass contemporarily. It was founded from Muscovy in the 14th century by rebels against the Tartars, and eventually absorbed it's neighbours to become a Tsardom, expanding across Siberia in the 16th century with the Cossacks' help. Under the rule of the Romanov dynasty since 1613, it expanded at the expanse of declining neighbours such as Sweden, the Ottoman Empire, and Poland-Lithuania, under the tsars, such as Peter the Great (1682-1721), Catherine the Great (1762-1796), and Alexander I (1801-1825), famous for having defeated Napoléon in 1812. By the 19th century, however, the infinitely expanding Russian Empire had become increasingly autocratic with it's subjugated masses, and low industrialization rates, and despite attempts to reform, such as the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the reactionary reigns of Alexander III (1881-1894), and Nicholas II (1894-1917) ultimately failed to modernize a changing Russia, and an agitated populace following a defeat by Japan and a 1905 Revolution rose up en masse against the Tsarist regime in March 1917 following food strikes and horrendous war casualties against Germany, resulting in the Tsar's abdication and a Republic declared, beginning a decade of civil war and political turmoil leading to the creation of the USSR in 1922.

Bulgaria is a small Balkan country situated in southeastern Europe, the modern state of which was recreated in 1878 by the Congress of Berlin from the declining Ottoman Empire. It became fully independent in 1908, and participated in the 1912 Balkan War, but was defeated in the next Balkan war (1913) by a coalition of nations. In the 1st World War it joined the Central Powers in a bid to reclaim lost land, but was defeated in 1918 and succumbed to an absolutist regime, up until WWII, when it sided with the Axis powers after 1941, until 1944 when it switched sides following the threat of Soviet invasion. It was included in the Soviet zone of occupation, and subsequently became a communist state of the Warsaw Pact in 1955, until the collapse of communism in Europe in 1989. Today it is a member state of the EU (since 2007), and NATO.

Ruanda-Urundi was a former Belgian colonial province located where the modern day independent nation states of Rwanda and Burundi are, in the African Great Lakes region. It was first colonized by the German Empire around 1894 as part of German East Africa, but was taken by Allied forces in WWI, and subsequently turned over to Belgium in the Treaty of Versailles. It was administered with the Belgian Congo, and by the Free Belgian forces during WWII (1940-1944), until the area's independence in 1962, with a brief stint as Ruanda-Burundi.

South Korea is a modern state in East Asia on the southern half of the Korean peninsula. Established by American occupation forces in 1948 following the defeat of Imperial Japan in 1945 as a Western-aligned nation in the Cold War. However this tragically meant a division from it's counter-state in the northern Soviet zone of occupation, North Korea, who invaded in 1950, resulting in an UN intervention, after which an armistice border was drawn up in 1953. The country became a democracy following the fall of Syngman Rhee in the 1970s, and it's industry and economic overtook it's northern neighbour's by a large margin. It is currently a very prosperous modern East Asian nation, that maintains security forces to help secure it's Northern border, and maintains close ties to NATO and the USA.

North Korea is a modern state in East Asia on the northern half of the Korean peninsula. Established by Soviet occupation forces in 1948 following the defeat of Imperial Japan in 1945 as a communist-aligned nation in the Cold War. However this tragically meant a division from it's counter-state in the southern American zone of occupation, South Korea, whom it invaded in 1950, resulting in an UN intervention, after which an armistice border was drawn up in 1953. The country has since rejected all forms all Western democracy, and remained an isolationist, totalitarian state cut off from the rest of the world, even more so since the fall of the USSR in 1991, with it's only real benefactor being the neighbouring People's Republic of China. It has only relatively recently opened it's doors to aid and foreign tourism, but remains stagnant in economic and development indexes when compared to it's southern neighbour, and also has yet to show any sign of leaving the tyrannical grasp of the Kim family.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a low-lying nation in Northwestern Europe, founded as the Dutch Republic in 1648 following the Eighty Years War against Habsburg Spain, it's former controller. The nation prospered under the Netherlands East Indies Company's colonial exploits and voyages to the East Indies and Caribbean, growing into one of the major powers of the 17th and 18th centuries, one of the first colonial powers of the modern age. It was briefly annexed into Napoleonic France, first as the satellite Batavian Republic, then annexation until 1814/5, whereupon it gained Belgium in the Concert of Europe, which broke away in 1830.It had mostly lost it's colonial influence to Britain and France by the late 19th century, and remained neutral in WWI, hosting the International Courts in the Hague, but was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940, and occupied until it's 1945 liberation by the Allies, who fought with Dutch troops in exile against the Japanese in the East Indies, independent after the war in 1949. The Netherlands became a founding member of the EEC in 1957, and the 1993 Treaty of Maastricht created the present EU there. It is also a member of NATO and a constitutional monarchy under Wilhelm-Alexander I.

Lithuania is a small Baltic nation created after centuries of foreign rule by the Russian Empire following it's absorption of Poland-Lithuania in 1795, in 1918 from the former German Baltic provinces gained from the bolsheviks in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and lost in the Treaty of Versailles. It has used the litas as it's currency ever since, but the young nation was menaced by first Poland in 1920, then Germany in 1939, and annexed by the Soviet Union in July 1940 as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. It only re-emerged as an independent state in 1989, following the 'Singing Revolution' along with Estonia and Latvia and was recognized after the formal dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. It is currently a member of the EU and NATO, and exists today as a parliamentary democracy.

French Somaliland was a French colony from it's acquisition by French colonial administrators from the dying Ottoman Empire in 1894, who had ruled it since the 15th century in the form of various sultanates, and was administered as the French Somalian Coast (Côte des Somalis Français). It was invaded by the forces of Mussolini's Italian East Africa in 1940, but was liberated by Free French and British troops in 1941, whereupon it switched allegiance to the Free French in 1942. It was renamed the French Afars and Issas in 1977.

Ireland is a nation situated on the British Isles. The island of Ireland has been traditionally dominated from London by English and Norman noblemen, since the 12th century AD, suppressing local Gaelic culture to different degrees throughout the Middle Ages. The Ulster plantations and the Flight of the Earls following a defeat against England in the late Tudor era began a bitter divide between northern Protestant Ulster and southern Catholic Ireland, brought under English rule by Cromwell following the brutal 1649 Drogheda campaign. Irish nationalism grew in the 17th 18th and 19th centuries, fostering rebellions such as the one by Wolfe Tone in 1798 resulting in it becoming united with Great Britain in 1801 to form the United Kingdom. A severe potato blight in 1845 led to mass emigration, and demands for Home Rule grew throughout the later 19th century, culminating in the 1916 Easter Rising, which led in turn to tensions creating the Irish War of Independence, a bitter struggle lasting until the Irish Free State's proclamation in 1922. It's neutrality in WWII and transition into the 1949 Republic of Ireland did not end the division with Ulster remaining in the UK, culminating in the 1970s and 1980s known as the 'Troubles' to most. Fortunately the modern day Irish Republic is a prosperous state, having entered the EEC in 1973, and greater cooperation has brought about bright prospects for the country's future.

Morocco is a North African country on the Straits of Gibraltar. It was first settled by the Moors in the 6th century AD following the Roman Empire's collapse, and various Islamic Caliphates dominated the area until the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Morocco became an Ottoman Vassal in the mid 19th century, but became the focus of colonial disputes between Spain, France and Germany in 1905 and 1911, whereupon it became a French protectorate (Maroc Français). In the 1920s the Rif War was fought against colonial insurgents, and Spanish troop rebellions in the Spanish zone sparked the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The Vichy French regime was established there in 1940, but overthrown in 1942 with the Allied invasion in Operation Torch, and the nation became fully independent one again in 1956 under Sultan Mohammed VI. Today it remains one of the few monarchies in Africa, and one of the most developed countries on that continent.

Mexico (Estados Unidos Mexicanos) is a Spanish-speaking nation in North America founded in 1821 from colonial insurgents dissatisfied with the weakened Spanish monarchy following the Peninsular War of Napoléon in 1808-14. The initially unstable presidential republic was weakened by the Texas Rebellion in 1835/6, then the Mexican-American war with it's larger neighbour in 1846 losing it almost half it's territory. In 1863-7 an attempted French intervention resulted in Mexican political instability for the rest of the 19th century, with the new currency the Peso replacing the Real in 1905. Mexican instability and the 1910 rebellion led to an American intervention against Pancho Villa, after which the Zimmermann Telegram from Germany brought the US into WWI. Mexico thereafter became an ally of the United States, entering WWII with it in 1941/2, and is today a faithful member of NAFTA, and a prominent nation state on the American continents.

Panama (Republica Panamá) is a small Spanish speaking nation in Central America founded through rebellion against Colombia funded by the United States in 1903, in order to gain influence in the area via 'big stick' diplomacy. The new Republic became an effective US satellite, and almost immediately excavations for the Panama Canal began, completed in 1914 and opened the following year. Panama joined WWII with the US in 1941/2, and allowed the US control of a Canal Zone for many years, until 1977, and is currently a well known location because of its famous canal.
I am away from PC, and working on these on notebook is particularly painfull. So I added few, that were short enough, I will experiment on how these longer would look or I will shorten them once I am back at my working station.

For now, I Bolded those I added to the site in the first post.
Catalogue administrator
I don't agree with this type of introductions to the countries. Numista does not contribute anything with this kind of small summary of a Wikipedia article. These introductions should be exclusively numismatic. To explain the scope of the Numista catalog in this country, the monetary systems with a bit of historical context, their style and nothing more.

We know where Tibet is or can find easily some simple facts of its History and Geography ; but what coins must be in Tibet section of Numista, all Tibetan coins, only of the independent country in XX century, also the Tibetan coins struck in Nepal in previous centuries ...? What do the mysterious symbols of their coins represent? What is the origin of the designs of the tangka, one of the most beautiful coins ever made? What coins were used in previous centuries? ...

Let's give some useful information to the numismatic collector.
Referee for Spain, Iberia (ancient), Suebi Kingdom and Visigothic Kingdom
Point made.
Catalogue administrator
Quote: "zegeri"​I don't agree with this type of introductions to the countries. Numista does not contribute anything with this kind of small summary of a Wikipedia article. These introductions should be exclusively numismatic. To explain the scope of the Numista catalog in this country, the monetary systems with a bit of historical context, their style and nothing more.

​We know where Tibet is or can find easily some simple facts of its History and Geography ; but what coins must be in Tibet section of Numista, all Tibetan coins, only of the independent country in XX century, also the Tibetan coins struck in Nepal in previous centuries ...? What do the mysterious symbols of their coins represent? What is the origin of the designs of the tangka, one of the most beautiful coins ever made? What coins were used in previous centuries? ...

​Let's give some useful information to the numismatic collector.
Is that not the point of the rest of the catalogue?​ The intro really just ties things together.
Quote: "zegeri"​I don't agree with this type of introductions to the countries. Numista does not contribute anything with this kind of small summary of a Wikipedia article. These introductions should be exclusively numismatic. To explain the scope of the Numista catalog in this country, the monetary systems with a bit of historical context, their style and nothing more.

​We know where Tibet is or can find easily some simple facts of its History and Geography ; but what coins must be in Tibet section of Numista, all Tibetan coins, only of the independent country in XX century, also the Tibetan coins struck in Nepal in previous centuries ...? What do the mysterious symbols of their coins represent? What is the origin of the designs of the tangka, one of the most beautiful coins ever made? What coins were used in previous centuries? ...

​Let's give some useful information to the numismatic collector.
​Absolutely support! Geographically pseudo-historical excerpts of pediwikia articles are unknown by whom written there. Without politics? Immediately rained posts with a mention of the Soviet invasions, Russian occupations, the unfortunate East Europeans crushed by Soviet troops. Not tired of yourself yet?
Information useful to numismatists, that's all.
Oh my god. I should have probably wrote these myself. Not dealing with history deniers and other nacionalistic stuff....
Catalogue administrator
I think I'll take a hiatus from writing until the politically motivated get sorted out; we can always just recycle those in the Numisdoc.
It is just small introduction. Brief, about the country. Long article about history and coinage, currencies etc. should be in Numisdoc.
Catalogue administrator
Thank you, CassTaylor, for stopping your pseudo-historic rant about the historic events you have no idea about. I see you are completely brainwashed by the Western propaganda. We better stop this project as it will lead us in the wrong direction of divisiveness and bitterness.
I don't send via registered mail with very few exceptions.
As a historian myself, I found nothing wrong in CassTaylor's texts... can you point out what you meant?

PS: Stating obvious facts cannot lead to divisivneess. Facts are unifying factor, their interpretations are not.
Catalogue administrator
His posts can be made politically neutral, without using words such as "occupation", "brutally crushed", etc. His Russophobia is sticking out. I understand that you don't see anything wrong in his rant as you are from another Russophobic country. That is OK, I get it.
I don't send via registered mail with very few exceptions.
Country that cannot accept its own history has serious problem. But it is often easier to "find" that all others are responsible for your problems and everybody is against you.
Catalogue administrator
Quote: "Jarcek"​Country that cannot accept its own history has serious problem. But it is often easier to "find" that all others are responsible for your problems and everybody is against you.
Don't worry about my problems. Take care of yourself and everything will be fine.​
I don't send via registered mail with very few exceptions.
Against you was meant in general. Nevetheless, I agree with your sentence. There is exactly nothing about occupations/crushings in Russia/Soviet Union articles. :) Maybe it should be Hungarians speaking about this, or Czechs/Slovaks in case of Czechoslovakia.

So let's keep on and everything will be fine.
Catalogue administrator
Czechoslovakia was a nation-state birthed in 1918 from the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of WWI. It was the most democratic state in Central Europe during the interwar period, but the first Czechoslovak Republic ultimately came to an end after being menaced by Nazi Germany in 1938, after which the Western betrayal forced the Czechs to give up the Sudetenland, and later became annexed under the protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia until the Soviet Liberation in 1944-45, after which Czechoslovakia was forcibly made to join the Warsaw Pact as a communist state in 1955. The Prague spring uprising in 1968 was brutally crushed by Soviet troops, but by 1989 the communists in Czechoslovakia were weakened, and the newly-democratic Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia following the Velvet Divorce in 1993.

Jarcek, please tell me, if you are a historian, exactly how many Czechs were killed during this "brutal crush" by the Soviets? As far as I know, it was quite the opposite. The Soviet soldiers were forbidden from using any force while the Czechs were throwing eggs, feces, stones toward Russian tanks. Nobody was hurt during this "brutal crush". It is just centuries-long irrational hate toward the Russians that drove political orientation of Western Slavs, including Czechoslovakia in 1968.
I don't send via registered mail with very few exceptions.
108 Czechoslovaks died, 70 000 escaped, culture was diminished, and country was occupied by soviet troops for years to come, not to mention how many lives new regime destroyed. Word brutal is quite harsh, but nevertheless, this is one of the occasions of why almost everyone (Ukrainians being the latests) has "irrational" love for Russians. But it not the people we hate, but the system that controls them. And you, obviously, judging by that last sentence of yours.

Nevermind, I see now that this was a mistake. I will add these introductions by myself.
Catalogue administrator
Oh great we have not learned anything. If you put 100 people in a room and write one thing about history , you are going to piss off at least 10 of them. If iam not wrong this is a coin collecting site, not a history site. Everyone has the right to view history in there own groups thinking. We are all coin collectors, and may working and helping each other, with coins and more about them . Bring us more together, not everyone pulling back . This may be just a big dream , humans working together. I think there is more of a chance of coin collectors working together than humans. Maybe we should only put were the country is. How big it is What coins are used, maybe some history on that. And some history of there mints.
It is, what it is, or is it.
You are right. I will make those comments more informative and less political.

My original thought was that people would be happy to write some short info about their country or country that they have interest in. Never thought prople can be upset about histories of other nations... I took the Spanish case, and if anyone wishes to express that something can be said more correctly or diplomatically, of course, ok, write it better, suggest corections, I am open minded.
Catalogue administrator
Yes my friend Jarcek I think you started this with only good intentions . But we humans are a odd group.
It is, what it is, or is it.
Quote: "scceda"​His posts can be made politically neutral, without using words such as "occupation", "brutally crushed", etc. His Russophobia is sticking out. I understand that you don't see anything wrong in his rant as you are from another Russophobic country. That is OK, I get it.
​I've made no effort to hide the various achievements of the USSR (space race, turned the tide in the 2nd WW, etc.), but what's done is done. 'insert country here-phobic' could be thrown at me for just about any of the other texts. Russophobia=/= historical fact.

Nonetheless @Jarcek should probably have final say in editing these.
Germany 1933 - 1945. (A)

The glorious start of the 3rd Reich can be dated to the suspension of the former Wiemar Constitution and assumption of Dictatorial powers by our beloved Fuhrer after the Reichstag was burned by Jewish Bolsheviks. During the twelve years of it's existence the 3rd Reich made technological advances at a faster rate than at any point in human history.
The NSDAP, termed "Nazis" by Jewish agitators, was formed from the various Friekorps fighting against Communist revolutionaries and was lead by a core of First World War heroes, principally Fighter Ace Herman Goering and Adolf Hitler, winner of an unprecedented Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class.
On being given power by the German People, the NDSAP performed the greatest economic miracle ever seen as the country was brought from hyper-inflation and mass starvation to the premier economy in the world. While the rest of the world was struggling with the aftermath of the Wall Street crash, industrious Germans were busily building the Autobahn system and an Empire to last a thousand years.
Sadly it wasn't to last as an unholy Jewish inspired coalition of dissolute Western Democracies and Slavic monsters from Stalin's Russia declared war on a German nation seeking only peace and friendship. Despite crushing Western Europe in a matter of weeks due to the superiority of the German fighting man, brilliant generalship, the strategic genius of Adolf Hitler and the technological superiority of the Wehrmacht, after a six year heroic struggle Germany was finally crushed by a war on two fronts.

Germany 1933 - 1945. (B)

In 1933 a madman called Adolf Hitler, a known corpophiliac with one testicle, seized power in Germany, killed six million Jews and declared war on the rest of the world and killed another 60 million. The 3rd Reich came to a merciful end when the madman shot himself while hiding in his bunker to avoid answering for his crimes against humanity.

Germany 1933 - 1945. (C)

They made some really nice coins and stamps which are fun to collect.

See what I did there?

Same story, three very different versions. The first two depend entirely on your perspective, family background, birthplace, degree of education and personal biases. The actual truth probably lies somewhere between the two. It's a fascinating discussion, but not one for a coin forum.

I've enjoyed reading the condensed pop histories and didn't find them controversial. If I was born in Russia or East / Central Europe I might see things differently. Oh, I have my opinions for sure but I generally don't express them due to the warmth of my feelings towards several of you from varied countries / backgrounds. I reckon if the combined powers of the UN can't solve these problems, it's beyond our paygrade.

The third is just the plain, unvarnished truth. Perhaps we should stick to that.
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
Nice one Phil :-)

Here's my take on the Spanish Civil War, stripping out some details that should mainly be part of a Numisdoc:

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was a conflict along many ideological, ethnic and religious lines. It started as a military coup by the Nationalists against the Republic of Spain after which the country was severely divided. In general, the Nationalists were supported by conservatives, and the Republicans by a wide variety of social-democrats, communists and anarchists, but the divisions also took regional forms with for example Catalans and Basques opposing a centralist nationalist regime. The civil war caused a lot of international attention and both sides were supported by ideologically aligned states and volunteers. Spanish civil war coinage consists of both emergency coinage and coins that were aimed at symbolising regional autonomy or opposition to the nationalists.

In general, in my opinion the country introductions should contain no more than the following:
- Location (for the geographically ignorant, most of us collectors already have a natural interest in topography)
- Population, perhaps language if relevant
- History: only how and when the country came into existence and if applicable how it ended. No need for all kinds of other details.
- Coinage: briefly explain some specifics about the currency used or other introductory guidance for collectors.
I will stick to your suggestion Jokinen, that would be for the best.
Catalogue administrator
Argentina is a country in South America bordering Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil and Uruguay. The republic has its origins in the Spanish Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata before fighting an independence war from 1810 until 1818. It took another few decades before a centralised government was accepted by all provinces. Mass immigration from especially Italy at the end of the 19th century gave Argentina its distinct culture in Latin America. The political and economic challenges of the 20th century caused many bouts of inflation and are reflected in the many types of Argentine coins. Currency reforms took place in 1881, 1970, 1983, 1985 and 1992.
Aruba is an island and constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea just north of Venezuela. It was first colonised by Spain in the early 16th century but passed to Dutch rule in 1636, where it was part of the Dutch West Indies. Aruba became part of the Netherlands Antilles in 1954 as part of a political reform, and obtained a status aparte in 1986. Ever since Aruba has minted its own version of the Netherlands Antilles Guilder which is the Florin. Aruba, a popular tourist destination, has a population of 100,000.
So taking a hint from the suggestion to make things more numismatic, heres one for Austria

Austria (Republik Österreich) is a small mountainous country located in Central Europe, on the Alps mountains. It is renowned for it's musical culture and south German, Alpine traditions. The modern state of Austria was established after WWI in 1918, with it's initial unstable currency of the old Austro-Hungarian krone, replaced in 1924-25 by the Austrian Schilling. The schilling was replaced by the mark during the period of German annexation of 1938-45, whereupon an Allied occupation schilling was established, with the schilling being reestablished in 1947 as normal, until Austria's accepting of the Euro in 2002.

More numismatically related, and of a shorter length.
Quote: "CassTaylor"​So taking a hint from the suggestion to make things more numismatic, heres one for Austria

​Austria (Republik Österreich) is a small mountainous country located in Central Europe, on the Alps mountains. It is renowned for it's musical culture and south German, Alpine traditions. The modern state of Austria was established after WWI in 1918, with it's initial unstable currency of the old Austro-Hungarian krone, replaced in 1924-25 by the Austrian Schilling. The schilling was replaced by the mark during the period of German annexation of 1938-45, whereupon an Allied occupation schilling was established, with the schilling being reestablished in 1947 as normal, until Austria's accepting of the Euro in 2002.

​More numismatically related, and of a shorter length.

Austria (Republik Österreich) is a small mountainous country located in Central Europe. It is renowned for its musical culture and south German, Alpine traditions. The First Republic of Austria was established after WWI in 1918 and lasted until annexation by Germany in 1938. Upon victory, the Allies occupied Austria from 1945, with the Second Republic officially established with the Austrian State Treaty in 1955. The Austrian Republic's first currency was the Krone, replaced by the more stable Schilling in 1924. The German occupiers replaced it with the Reichsmark, but the Allies reinstated the Schilling again in 1947. The post-war Schilling was pegged to the Deutschmark and succeeded by the Euro in 1999.

Sorry for hijacking this one :-). I just wanted to highlight a few spelling issues and subsequently rewrote the second part a bit.
Quote: "jokinen"
Quote: "CassTaylor"​So taking a hint from the suggestion to make things more numismatic, heres one for Austria
​​
​​Austria (Republik Österreich) is a small mountainous country located in Central Europe, on the Alps mountains. It is renowned for it's musical culture and south German, Alpine traditions. The modern state of Austria was established after WWI in 1918, with it's initial unstable currency of the old Austro-Hungarian krone, replaced in 1924-25 by the Austrian Schilling. The schilling was replaced by the mark during the period of German annexation of 1938-45, whereupon an Allied occupation schilling was established, with the schilling being reestablished in 1947 as normal, until Austria's accepting of the Euro in 2002.
​​
​​More numismatically related, and of a shorter length.
​​
​Austria (Republik Österreich) is a small mountainous country located in Central Europe. It is renowned for its musical culture and south German, Alpine traditions. The First Republic of Austria was established after WWI in 1918 and lasted until annexation by Germany in 1938. Upon victory, the Allies occupied Austria from 1945, with the Second Republic officially established with the Austrian State Treaty in 1955. The Austrian Republic's first currency was the Krone, replaced by the more stable Schilling in 1924. The German occupiers replaced it with the Reichsmark, but the Allies reinstated the Schilling again in 1947. The post-war Schilling was pegged to the Deutschmark and succeeded by the Euro in 1999.

​Sorry for hijacking this one :-). I just wanted to highlight a few spelling issues and subsequently rewrote the second part a bit.
​Pas de probleme, the rewrote version actually looked more like the 'historically biased' ones above but we'll go with it. We should have a formal beginning like 'xx (country name in native language) is a (geography) known for (notable traditions). < Brief History>, <Numismatic info/history>.
Annexation and occupation of Austria. One could also argue it was a voluntary dissolution of the Austrian First Republic after the attempt in 1919 was blocked by the Allies.

Maybe 'the German occupiers' needs to be softened to 'the German authorities'. The Germans treated occupied territories rather differently, to put it mildly. Annexation still more or less describes what happened.

And even now one could argue that Austria is effectively a German Bundesland with slightly more autonomy than the others, but I know that's a rather sensitive issue. Anyway, I always feel at home in the Austrian Alps listening to German schlagers. Not much different from Finnish iskelmät.
The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is a country located on the Lucayan Archipelago north of Cuba and east of Florida. It has an advanced economy based on financial offshoring and tourism. The Bahamas became a British Crown Colony in 1718, after the islands mainly served as a hideout for pirates the century before. It became self-ruling in 1964 and fully independent in 1973. The Bahamas replaced the British Pound with its own Dollar at par with the U.S. Dollar in 1966. Because the exchange rate was set at 7 Shillings per Dollar, coins of 15 Cents and banknotes of 3 Dollars were introduced because they were roughly worth a Shilling and a Pound respectively. The Bahamas have a population of 400,000.
Just small edits to an otherwise fairly objective introduction on Colonial influence in India

-warlords denote these people are some sort of tribal temporary chieftains rather than Royal Dynasties.
-Sepoy mutiny is a very British account of the events of 1857-58. Many, especially in India would argue it was the first stirrings of a Pan-Indian subcontinental identity
- The partition may have got the backing of the UN, however, it was a result of direct negotiations between the British govt (led by Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy and first Governor General of India), the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League
- The French intended to hold on to their colonies if they could and the plebicites gave an explicit option to people to either join the Indian Union or become part of France (as DOMTOM)
- Portugal did not peacefully give up Goa and by 1961, Nehru felt that he had exhausted diplomatic options to persuade the Portuguese. After reports of abuses by the colonial govt of Independence activists and growing public anger in India, the Indian govt launched a formal invasion of Goa and within a few days overwhelmed a very skeletal Portuguese military presence. A few portuguese boats were sunk, the airport was bombed and several thousand portuguese soldiers and govt staff were taken as POWs before they were repatriated to the homeland. Its interesting to note that the last Viceroy Manuel Silva ignored the Salazar govts order to set fire to Panjim. The Indian govt only put him under house arrest before repatriating him to Portugal. He spent his time in jail there till the Military Junta was overthrown. He would return to India several times after that as a guest of honour of the Indian govt



Casstaylor wrote:

British influence in India began in the early/mid 17th century, with the founding of trading posts on the coast by the East India Company. The expansion of the East India Company's influence in India involved playing local rulers/kings off each other, and throughout the 18th century most other European colonial presences in India were minimized in the Seven years War (1756-1763). The Carnatic Wars further helped weaken the local Mughal and Maratha Empires, and by 1830 British influence stretched from Bombay to Bengal. Consolidation of this power, combined with the East india Company's inept rule, led to the Sepoy Mutiny/Indian War of Independence in 1857-8, after which control of British India was transferred to the Crown in 1862, with Queen Victoria assuming the title of 'Empress of India' in 1877 from Disraeli. By 1900, the British Raj expanded from Baluchistan and Punjab to Ceylon and Burma, with wars constantly being fought with the Afghans on the North-west frontier. British India supplied troops to Britain on the Western Front and in Mesopotamia in WWI, but throughout the 1920s and 1930s nationalist sentiments under Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru brought the Indian Nationalist Congress to demand dominion status & eventually independence. British India was threatened by Japan in 1942, but saved at the Battle of Imphal, after which the Bengal famine caused by food diverted to British troops fighting in Burma occurred. By the end of the war, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee agreed to organized Indian independence under the UN Partition Plan of 1947 (under the supervision of Lord Louis Mountbatten).

French colonial presence in India began in the early 17th century, after which the expansion of French colonies was precipitated under Louis XIV. The Seven Years War, however saw British General Robert Clive take most of France's colonial possessions in India, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the only French possessions left in India were Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagnore, Yanaon, and Karikal, each only comprised of a few small port cities. France maintained these tiny outposts out of 'sentimental value' in the British Raj. They were invaded in 1942 (??)and transferred to Free France, under de Gaulle, but were given up to the Republic of India in 1954 following plebiscites that overwhelmingly saw the colonies vote to join the Indian union.

Portuguese presence in India began with Vasco da Gama's voyages in 1498, and by the early 16th century, Portuguese trading posts in India had already been established, at Bombay and Goa. They were briefly Spanish until Portugal's independence in 1640. By the 18th century, however, most of these ports had been traded to England following Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. By the 19th century, Portugal maintained parts of this trading post empire in the form of Goa, and Diu and Daman, which issued coins of it's own in Rupias and later in Escudos. The Portuguese revolution of 1910 did not de-stabilize these colonies, and in 1961 were annexed to the now independent India. Portugal did not recognize India's authority over the former Portuguese Indian enclaves under 1974, the year of the overthrow of its military junta
Outings administrator
A brief historical footnote; The use of the term "nazi" is wholly incorrect when referring to the 3rd Reich period. It's simply a meaningless contraction of the NDSAP label and was certainly not an official term in use by the German government.

When describing, for example, "nazi invasion" or "nazi Germany" we are committing an offense to both history and good grammar. The "nazi" label was entirely a creation of allied wartime propaganda. It's continued use owes much to "pop history" outlets such as the lowbrow History Channel with it's "Secret Nazi Alien Swamp Peoples hunting mushrooms to pawn in Alaska" programming. Those doing the actual fighting, i.e. The Red Army, used the equally inaccurate but slightly less silly "Fascist" label. (The Italians were politically Fascist, not the Germans who were National Socialist. The former is a merging of Nationalism and Corporatism, while the latter is a race based Nationalism.) Close, but no cigar comrade.

Not all Germans were party members and this is reflected in the make up of the Wehrmacht which contained recruits of all political stripes and even an estimated 150,000 soldiers of Jewish heritage. To describe them as nazis is clearly ridiculous. It's time to move on from wartime shorthand.

"In 1944, the heavily fortified sea defences of Normandy were invaded by a combined force of British Imperialists, Canadian Colonists and Yank Democrats. This long awaited second front relieved some of the burden from the Russkie Commies fighting on the Eastern Front" Silly isn't it?
Non illegitimis carborundum est.  Excellent advice for all coins.
Make Numismatics Great Again!  
Austria (Habsburg) refers to the period of time when Austria, and its constituent parts, were under the dominion of the House of Habsburg , beginning with the union of several duchies in the Holy Roman Empire in 1273. The conglomeration issued various thaler coins in concordant with the rest of the HRE, which it dominated by the 15th century. Various wars of succession throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries resulted in Habsburg power being limited to the Austrian possessions, which had grown to include many non-Germanic lands. The Empire, formalized in 1804, adopted a decimal version of the Gulden (adopted 1754) in 1857. The 1867 compromise saw the now Austria-Hungary dualized, with the introduction of a new kroner currency in 1892, at a 1:1 rate against the Hungarian florin(forint)/korona, a par set since the Hungarian satellite currency's introduction in 1857. The unstable empire was rocked by ethnic crises leading up to the outbreak of WWI in 1914, eventually ending in it's dissolution and implosion in 1918, setting up the new Austrian Republic and other central European states.

It's more or less impossible to write an introduction without offending someone- especially for a historical country such as this one. I've pandered more or less to the above criticisms, making things more numismatically oriented.
Quote: "ashlobo"​Just small edits to an otherwise fairly objective introduction on Colonial influence in India

​-warlords denote these people are some sort of tribal temporary chieftains rather than Royal Dynasties.
​-Sepoy mutiny is a very British account of the events of 1857-58. Many, especially in India would argue it was the first stirrings of a Pan-Indian subcontinental identity
​- The partition may have got the backing of the UN, however, it was a result of direct negotiations between the British govt (led by Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy and first Governor General of India), the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League
​- The French intended to hold on to their colonies if they could and the plebicites gave an explicit option to people to either join the Indian Union or become part of France (as DOMTOM)
​- Portugal did not peacefully give up Goa and by 1961, Nehru felt that he had exhausted diplomatic options to persuade the Portuguese. After reports of abuses by the colonial govt of Independence activists and growing public anger in India, the Indian govt launched a formal invasion of Goa and within a few days overwhelmed a very skeletal Portuguese military presence. A few portuguese boats were sunk, the airport was bombed and several thousand portuguese soldiers and govt staff were taken as POWs before they were repatriated to the homeland. Its interesting to note that the last Viceroy Manuel Silva ignored the Salazar govts order to set fire to Panjim. The Indian govt only put him under house arrest before repatriating him to Portugal. He spent his time in jail there till the Military Junta was overthrown. He would return to India several times after that as a guest of honour of the Indian govt



​Casstaylor wrote:

​British influence in India began in the early/mid 17th century, with the founding of trading posts on the coast by the East India Company. The expansion of the East India Company's influence in India involved playing local rulers/kings off each other, and throughout the 18th century most other European colonial presences in India were minimized in the Seven years War (1756-1763). The Carnatic Wars further helped weaken the local Mughal and Maratha Empires, and by 1830 British influence stretched from Bombay to Bengal. Consolidation of this power, combined with the East india Company's inept rule, led to the Sepoy Mutiny/Indian War of Independence in 1857-8, after which control of British India was transferred to the Crown in 1862, with Queen Victoria assuming the title of 'Empress of India' in 1877 from Disraeli. By 1900, the British Raj expanded from Baluchistan and Punjab to Ceylon and Burma, with wars constantly being fought with the Afghans on the North-west frontier. British India supplied troops to Britain on the Western Front and in Mesopotamia in WWI, but throughout the 1920s and 1930s nationalist sentiments under Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru brought the Indian Nationalist Congress to demand dominion status & eventually independence. British India was threatened by Japan in 1942, but saved at the Battle of Imphal, after which the Bengal famine caused by food diverted to British troops fighting in Burma occurred. By the end of the war, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee agreed to organized Indian independence under the UN Partition Plan of 1947 (under the supervision of Lord Louis Mountbatten).

​French colonial presence in India began in the early 17th century, after which the expansion of French colonies was precipitated under Louis XIV. The Seven Years War, however saw British General Robert Clive take most of France's colonial possessions in India, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the only French possessions left in India were Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagnore, Yanaon, and Karikal, each only comprised of a few small port cities. France maintained these tiny outposts out of 'sentimental value' in the British Raj. They were invaded in 1942 (??)and transferred to Free France, under de Gaulle, but were given up to the Republic of India in 1954 following plebiscites that overwhelmingly saw the colonies vote to join the Indian union.

​Portuguese presence in India began with Vasco da Gama's voyages in 1498, and by the early 16th century, Portuguese trading posts in India had already been established, at Bombay and Goa. They were briefly Spanish until Portugal's independence in 1640. By the 18th century, however, most of these ports had been traded to England following Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. By the 19th century, Portugal maintained parts of this trading post empire in the form of Goa, and Diu and Daman, which issued coins of it's own in Rupias and later in Escudos. The Portuguese revolution of 1910 did not de-stabilize these colonies, and in 1961 were annexed to the now independent India. Portugal did not recognize India's authority over the former Portuguese Indian enclaves under 1974, the year of the overthrow of its military junta
​Awesome work, of course your edits are welcome.

For the French one, though:

French colonial presence in India began in the early 17th century, after which the expansion of French colonies was precipitated under Louis XIV. The Seven Years War, however saw British General Robert Clive take most of France's colonial possessions in India, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the only French possessions left in India were Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagnore, Yanaon, and Karikal, each only comprised of a few small port cities. France maintained these tiny outposts out of 'sentimental value' in the British Raj. They stayed loyal to Free France from 1940 onwards under de Gaulle, but were given up to the Republic of India in 1954 following plebiscites that overwhelmingly saw the colonies vote to join the Indian union.
Quote: "CassTaylor"
Quote: "ashlobo"​Just small edits to an otherwise fairly objective introduction on Colonial influence in India
​​
​​-warlords denote these people are some sort of tribal temporary chieftains rather than Royal Dynasties.
​​-Sepoy mutiny is a very British account of the events of 1857-58. Many, especially in India would argue it was the first stirrings of a Pan-Indian subcontinental identity
​​- The partition may have got the backing of the UN, however, it was a result of direct negotiations between the British govt (led by Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy and first Governor General of India), the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League
​​- The French intended to hold on to their colonies if they could and the plebicites gave an explicit option to people to either join the Indian Union or become part of France (as DOMTOM)
​​- Portugal did not peacefully give up Goa and by 1961, Nehru felt that he had exhausted diplomatic options to persuade the Portuguese. After reports of abuses by the colonial govt of Independence activists and growing public anger in India, the Indian govt launched a formal invasion of Goa and within a few days overwhelmed a very skeletal Portuguese military presence. A few portuguese boats were sunk, the airport was bombed and several thousand portuguese soldiers and govt staff were taken as POWs before they were repatriated to the homeland. Its interesting to note that the last Viceroy Manuel Silva ignored the Salazar govts order to set fire to Panjim. The Indian govt only put him under house arrest before repatriating him to Portugal. He spent his time in jail there till the Military Junta was overthrown. He would return to India several times after that as a guest of honour of the Indian govt
​​
​​
​​
​​Casstaylor wrote:
​​
​​British influence in India began in the early/mid 17th century, with the founding of trading posts on the coast by the East India Company. The expansion of the East India Company's influence in India involved playing local rulers/kings off each other, and throughout the 18th century most other European colonial presences in India were minimized in the Seven years War (1756-1763). The Carnatic Wars further helped weaken the local Mughal and Maratha Empires, and by 1830 British influence stretched from Bombay to Bengal. Consolidation of this power, combined with the East india Company's inept rule, led to the Sepoy Mutiny/Indian War of Independence in 1857-8, after which control of British India was transferred to the Crown in 1862, with Queen Victoria assuming the title of 'Empress of India' in 1877 from Disraeli. By 1900, the British Raj expanded from Baluchistan and Punjab to Ceylon and Burma, with wars constantly being fought with the Afghans on the North-west frontier. British India supplied troops to Britain on the Western Front and in Mesopotamia in WWI, but throughout the 1920s and 1930s nationalist sentiments under Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru brought the Indian Nationalist Congress to demand dominion status & eventually independence. British India was threatened by Japan in 1942, but saved at the Battle of Imphal, after which the Bengal famine caused by food diverted to British troops fighting in Burma occurred. By the end of the war, British Prime Minister Clement Atlee agreed to organized Indian independence under the UN Partition Plan of 1947 (under the supervision of Lord Louis Mountbatten).
​​
​​French colonial presence in India began in the early 17th century, after which the expansion of French colonies was precipitated under Louis XIV. The Seven Years War, however saw British General Robert Clive take most of France's colonial possessions in India, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the only French possessions left in India were Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagnore, Yanaon, and Karikal, each only comprised of a few small port cities. France maintained these tiny outposts out of 'sentimental value' in the British Raj. They were invaded in 1942 (??)and transferred to Free France, under de Gaulle, but were given up to the Republic of India in 1954 following plebiscites that overwhelmingly saw the colonies vote to join the Indian union.
​​
​​Portuguese presence in India began with Vasco da Gama's voyages in 1498, and by the early 16th century, Portuguese trading posts in India had already been established, at Bombay and Goa. They were briefly Spanish until Portugal's independence in 1640. By the 18th century, however, most of these ports had been traded to England following Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. By the 19th century, Portugal maintained parts of this trading post empire in the form of Goa, and Diu and Daman, which issued coins of it's own in Rupias and later in Escudos. The Portuguese revolution of 1910 did not de-stabilize these colonies, and in 1961 were annexed to the now independent India. Portugal did not recognize India's authority over the former Portuguese Indian enclaves under 1974, the year of the overthrow of its military junta
​​Awesome work, of course your edits are welcome.

​For the French one, though:

​French colonial presence in India began in the early 17th century, after which the expansion of French colonies was precipitated under Louis XIV. The Seven Years War, however saw British General Robert Clive take most of France's colonial possessions in India, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the only French possessions left in India were Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagnore, Yanaon, and Karikal, each only comprised of a few small port cities. France maintained these tiny outposts out of 'sentimental value' in the British Raj. They stayed loyal to Free France from 1940 onwards under de Gaulle, but were given up to the Republic of India in 1954 following plebiscites that overwhelmingly saw the colonies vote to join the Indian union.
​to tell you the truth, when I was in school in Bombay, very little in our history books covered the french presence in India. I would say it's debatable whether people were loyal to the French or not because the independence movement in India was in full swing by then and the french And Portuguese areas were affected in equal measure. Besides, the British as allies of the french, obviously not allow for instance the Azad Hind Fauj (Free India Army) under Subash chandra Bose to march in to territories and govern them as independent Indian entities (with the military "backing" of Japan). In the end, the people did not have a choice and we would never know.
My recommendation would be to simply remove that line about loyalty because it contributes nothing and its removal does not change the tenor of your article either

side note : Chandranagore was already ceded to India in 1950. I plan on visiting Pondicherry when I go home to see my family early next year :)
Outings administrator
Belarus is an eastern European country, not in the EU, that was a historical region known before it's brief independence in 1918 to most as 'White Russia'. Following a 74-year stint as the Byelorussian SSR, it became independent in 1991 following the USSR's dissolution, and began minting it's own coins in 1996, following the adoption of the Byelorussian rouble (BYR) of banknotes in 1993. A second ruble was issued in 2000, lasting until 2016, when the currency was revalued once again, at the rate of 1 rouble (BYN) = 10000 old BYR roubles.

Belgium is a small country located in North-Western Europe comprising of Walloon, Flemish, and German ethnic groups, that is bordering France, the Netherlands, and Germany, known for confectionery and housing the seat of the EU. It was for most of it's history under foreign rule/internal division, until a 1830 uprising resulted in the creation of the nation-state of Belgium, formalized in 1839. The Belgian Franc was part of the Latin Monetary Union founded in 1865, being on par with the French franc among others, but experienced inflation, with zinc coinage being made, during & following it's invasion and occupation by Germany in WWI. The LMU was dissolved in 1927, and the Franc during the interwar years remained somewhat intertwined with the French Franc, with the unit of a Belga (1 Belga= 5 Francs) being introduced in the 1930s. Occupation coins were once again issued in zinc during the German occupation of 1940-44/5 in WWII, with the Franc again reduced in value post-war. Franc coins were briefly issued without a monarch's head in the absence of Léopold III, but continued with modern designs until the adoption of the Euro in 1999.

The Belgian Congo was first acquired by King Léopold II in 1885 as the Congo Free State, and coinage on par with the Belgian Franc was issued in 1887-1892. The Congo Free State became notorious for human rights abuses, and was given to the Belgian government in 1908, whereupon coins in the Belgian Congolese Franc were issued starting in 1911. Ruanda-Urundi was attached to it following it's acquisition from Germany in 1919. During the 2nd World War, the Belgian Free Forces were based in the Belgian Congo, and brass and silver coinage was minted. The colony became independent as the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960.
Belarus is an eastern European country, not in the EU, that was a historical region known before its brief independence in 1918 to most as 'White Russia'. Following a 74-year stint as the Byelorussian SSR, it became independent in 1991 following the USSR's dissolution, and began minting it's own coins in 1996, following the adoption of the Byelorussian rouble (BYR) of banknotes in 1993. A second ruble was issued in 2000, lasting until 2016, when the currency was revalued once again, at the rate of 1 rouble (BYN) = 10000 old BYR roubles.

Belgium is a small country located in North-Western Europe comprising of Walloon, Flemish, and German ethnic groups, that borders France, the Netherlands, and Germany, known for its confectionery and housing the seat of the EU. It was for most of its history under foreign rule/internal division, until a 1830 uprising resulted in the creation of the nation-state of Belgium, formalized in 1839. The Belgian Franc was part of the Latin Monetary Union founded in 1865, being on par with the French franc among others, but experienced inflation, with zinc coinage being made, during & following it's invasion and occupation by Germany in WWI. The LMU was dissolved in 1927, and the Franc during the interwar years saw the introduction of the unit of a Belga (1 Belga= 5 Francs) being introduced in the 1930s. Occupation coins were once again issued in zinc during the German occupation of 1940-44/5 in WWII, with the Franc again reduced in value post-war. Franc coins were briefly issued without a monarch's head in the absence of Léopold III, but continued with modern designs until the adoption of the Euro in 1999.

The Belgian Congo was a Belgian colonial possession located in the Congo Basin, in the area now occupied by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was first acquired by King Léopold II in 1885 as the Congo Free State, and coinage on par with the Belgian Franc was issued in 1887-1892. The Congo Free State became notorious for human rights abuses, and was given to the Belgian government in 1908, whereupon coins in the Belgian Congolese Franc were issued starting in 1911. Ruanda-Urundi was attached to it following it's acquisition from Germany in 1919. During the 2nd World War, the Belgian Free Forces were based in the Belgian Congo, and brass and silver coinage was minted. The colony became independent as the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1960.
Please forgive me for being a spelling puritan but the possessive pronoun of 'it' is 'its', not 'it's'. I am sure our friend and respected comrade Jarcek can do final censorship on this minor slip of keyboard.

Keep them coming!
Suriname is a small nation located in South America. It borders Guyana, French Guinea, and Brazil. Originally settled by the, Suriname ended up gaining independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1975. Suriname is known for its rich rain forests. During colonialism the Surinamese Guilder was introduced 1 dollar = 1000 guilders. In 2004 the guilder was replaced by the Dollar at a rate of 1000 guilders-1 dollar.
A rewritten version:

Suriname is a country located in the north of South America. It borders Guyana, French Guyana and Brazil. Originally settled by Arawak tribes, the Guynanan coast was contested by Englush and Dutch sugar planters. The Treaty of Breda (1667) formalised Dutch rule in Suriname in return for New Amsterdam (now New York) to the English. The country gained independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1975. Suriname is known for its rich rain forests and a small but very diverse population of almost 600,000. The Surinamese Guilder was introduced in 1940 when it was decoupled from homeland Guilder and pegged to U.S. Dollar instead. A fully separate coinage was introduced in 1962 and continued after independence. After a period of chronic inflation, the Gulden was replaced by the Surinamese Dollar at 1000:1 in 2004. Instead of being demonetised, earlier coins were revalued.
Barbados is an island country in the Eastern Caribbean with a population of almost 300,000. It became an English colony in 1627 and an independent country in 1966. Most Barbadians are of African descent, and the country is known for its beautiful Caribbean sceneries and is therefore a popular tourist destination. The Barbadian Dollar was introduced in 1972, replacing the East Caribbean Dollar at par. It is pegged to the U.S. Dollar at a rate of 2 Barbadian Dollars per USD. Because of the peg, U.S. Dollars are widely accepted in Barbados.
My take on Belgium:

Belgium is a country in Western Europe bordering France, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands. Its territory roughly corresponds to what was left of the Spanish Netherlands after the Dutch Republic became independent in 1581. From 1714 to 1790 it was known as the Austrian Netherlands. After a period of French and Dutch rule, Belgium became an independent kingdom in 1830. The country is divided in a Dutch and a French speaking part, and this is reflected in its coinage with many coins having two versions. Although often challenged, Belgium's unity in diversity made it the center of the EU hosting the union's unofficial capital Brussels. The country has a population of 11.2 million.
Quote: "jokinen"​My take on Belgium:

​Belgium is a country in Western Europe bordering France, Luxembourg, Germany and the Netherlands. Its territory roughly corresponds to what was left of the Spanish Netherlands after the Dutch Republic became independent in 1581. From 1714 to 1790 it was known as the Austrian Netherlands. After a period of French and Dutch rule, Belgium became an independent kingdom in 1830. The country is divided in a Dutch and a French speaking part, and this is reflected in its coinage with many coins having two versions. Although often challenged, Belgium's unity in diversity made it the center of the EU hosting the union's unofficial capital Brussels. The country has a population of 11.2 million.
​I'd rather my version of Belgique go through, as 1) it begins where 'catalogue' Belgium does (1830), and 2) I can too easily imagine some Walloon/Flemish nationalist coming along to challenge the stuff about unity.
Bermuda is a small British overseas territorial possession located in the North Atlantic Ocean, north of the Caribbean and subsequently well known for the 'Bermuda Triangle' where many mysterious disappearances have occurred. It was first settled in 1609 by English shipwreck victims on their way to Virginia, but the first coins were not produced until after a colony had been founded there, in 1793. Silver Commemoratives have been issued to in 1959 and 1964, but not until 1970 did a decimal Dollar coinage in regular issues finally become the standard coinage for Bermuda.

Bulgaria (България) is a small, mountainous country located in Southeastern Europe, known primarily for it's geographical isolation from other Cyrillic alphabet countries by Romania. It first became independent from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, whereupon coinage in lev was introduced (100 stotinki= 1 lev). These coins did not feature the Tsar of Bulgaria until around 1890, when a second issue was minted. Shortly after in 1908, Bulgaria gained full independence from the Ottoman Empire, and expanded, then lost in two Balkan Wars in 1912-13. The lev experienced inflation following Bulgaria's WWI defeat, and more so during Bulgaria's stint in the Axis from 1941 to 1944, when Soviet troops helped install the People's Republic of Bulgaria, who issued a new lev coinage in 1952. The PRB fell in 1989, and the third lev was introduced in 1999. Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007, but does not as of yet use the Euro.

Canada is a large North American country located above the United States, and known for it's export of maple syrup, the large Francophone populace in Québec , and hockey. It is part of the British Commonwealth and a portrait of the British monarch is on every Canadian coin's obverse. The settlement of Canada by English and French settlers ended with British dominance locally by 1763, and a form of self-government existed since 1848. However the first coinage for 'Canada' did not appear until 1858, after years of provincial token minting. Soon after the 1867 Articles of Confederation granted Canadians independence as a Dominion, and the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush attracted immigrant settlers to the country, precipitating the striking of 'C' mintmark sovereigns in 1911. Canada entered WWI in 1914 on the Allied side, and the 1931 Statue of Westminster gave a massive step towards self-regulation in foreign policy. In 1939 Canada entered WWII, and like the United States, in 1943 switched it's 5 cent coins' metals briefly. In 1949 Newfoundland joined Canada, eliminating the Newfoundland Dollar, and since 1968 Canadian coins have been non-silver. It is nowadays known amongst collectors for a huge variety of commemorative coins.

Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) is a former Portuguese colonial possession off the northern Atlantic coast of Africa. First claimed by Portuguese explorers in the late 15th century, its first coinage appeared only in 1930 in the Portuguese Escudo. Further issues were minted in 1949, 1953, and 1968, until independence in 1975 from Portugal following the Carnation Revolution, whereupon a new Cape Verdean Escudo was issued starting in 1977.

The CFA Franc (XAF, BEAC- Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale) was a currency created in 1973 by a group of post-colonial, mostly Francophone, Central African nations, namely Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Cameroon, and Equatorial Guinea (the only non-Francophone nation to use the Central African CFA Franc). It shares a name with the West African CFA Franc (XOF, BCEAO- Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de Ouest), and is interchangeable with it, as both derive their names from the post-WWII CFA Franc created to avoid imposing devaluation and financial difficulty on the French colonies. It's territories of usage roughly corresponds to the territory that comprised French Equatorial Africa (Afrique Equatoriale Française), (1910-1958).
Quote: "CassTaylor"​​​I'd rather my version of Belgique go through, as 1) it begins where 'catalogue' Belgium does (1830), and 2) I can too easily imagine some Walloon/Flemish nationalist coming along to challenge the stuff about unity.

​I was missing the historic link with the Spanish and Austrian Netherlands and your version was slightly too detailed and therefore too long. And this claim of 'nation state' could also be disputed by any Flemish or Walloon separatist ;-)

Don't take this personally, writing is 10%, editing 90%. Keep them coming!
I should start with adding on sunday evening.
Catalogue administrator
Belize is a country in Central America bordering Mexico and Guatemala. It is the only non-Latin country in the region. Founded by English and Scottish loggers in 1632, it became a popular hideout for pirates. Multiple Spanish attempts to conquer the area failed, and in 1862 the colony of British Honduras was officially established. In 1973 the name was changed to Belize. Neighbouring Guatemala has always claimed the area which is the reason that independence was only granted in 1982, with the British still responsible for Belize's defence. The country has a population of 370,000.
British Honduras was a British colony in Central America bordering Mexico and Guatemala. Together with Guyana, it was the only British possession on the American mainland south of Mexico. Founded by English and Scottish loggers in 1632, it became a popular hideout for pirates. Multiple Spanish attempts to conquer the area failed, and in 1862 the colony of British Honduras was officially established. In 1973 the name was changed to Belize. Neighbouring Guatemala has always claimed the area which is the reason that independence was only granted in 1982, with the British still responsible for Belize's defence.
Cuba is a Spanish-speaking island country located in the Caribbean south of Florida. It is particularly famous for it's exports of premium Havana cigars. The country was initially founded in 1493 by Christopher Columbus, who claimed it as a colony for Spain. It stayed Spanish throughout the independences of Spain's other American holdings, until nationalism in 1868 proclaimed a short-lived republic. Spanish rule continued until the 1898 Spanish-American War, in which the US occupied the island and established a republic there. The first Cuban coins were minted in 1915, with regular issues continuing in 1933 and a 1953 commemorative series. Batista's regime was overthrown in 1959 by Fidel Castro, whose communist Cuba infamously housed Soviet nuclear warheads in 1962's Cuba missile crisis. Today Cuban coins continue to be minted in the form of the Convertible Peso, introduced in 1994.

The Czech Republic is a Central European nation founded in the historical area of Bohemia-Moravia, in 1993 following the Velvet Divorce, dissolving the state of Czechoslovakia into two namesake states. The Czech Republic continues to use the Czech Koruna currency, with regular issues since 1993 being minted for it, and numerous commemorative issues too. It is particularly notable within cultured circles for it's medieval architecture, such as the Prague Orlov and Charles Bridge, and has recently become a popular backpacking destination in Europe.

Bohemia and Moravia was the official name of a German protectorate situated in the non-German majority areas of the former Czechoslovak state between 1939 and 1944/5. It was administered as part of Greater Germany, following the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939, while Slovakia became an independent puppet state. This political entity ceased to exist following the Soviet liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, and the former country of Czechoslovakia was reinstated after the end of the war. Zinc coins in the same denominations as the pre-war Koruna were issued in 1942.
Czechoslovakia was a nation in Central Europe, created from the implosion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 after WWI. It was formed by a declaration of independence from the Czechs and Slovaks in the northern parts of the Empire, and became an established state by the Treaty of St Germain in 1919. Koruna coins in regular issues were made in 1923-5, and silver commemoratives later, but the first Republic was menaced by NSDAP Germany in 1938, and subsequently annexed in 1939. Administered as the Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia (which minted coins) until the 1945 liberation, when it was reinstated following the war's end. A new Koruna was issued in 1945, which lasted until 1953, whereupon a 'People's Republic' Koruna was established in Czechoslovakia. The Socialist Republic's establishment in 1960 saw yet another new Koruna introduced, which lasted through the 1968 Prague Spring developments, until the 1990 fall of the Eastern Bloc, when the new Federative Republic, and Koruna were established, which lasted until the 1993 Velvet Divorce, breaking Czechoslovakia up into two separate component states.

(British) East Africa was a British colonial territory located in the modern day countries of Uganda and Kenya, and part of Tanzania (Zanzibar). First colonised in 1890 following a treaty between Germany and Britain, it's first coins were minted in 1906, in the form of a rupee currency in cents which lasted until 1920, when the East African florin was established following the addition of the Mandate of Tanganikya from Germany after WWI. This new florin was short lived, and in 1921 was replaced by the East African Shilling, through WWII, until it's gradual decolonization in 1962.

Eritrea is a country located in East Africa, on the Red Sea's African shore. It was ruled by the Ottoman Empire and Egypt as a vassal until Italian colonisation began in 1889. It's first coins were issued in the 1890s in lira denominations, minted in Rome and Milan, until the end of WWI, when to replicate the popular Maria Theresa thalers circulating there, the Italian Tallero was introduced in 1918. The colony was united with Somaliland and Abyssinia in 1936 into Italian East Africa, until Italy's WWII defeat in East Africa in 1941. The territory was given to the Empire of Ethiopia until the independence war of 1961-91 finally resulted in Eritrea becoming independent in 1993. Commemorative coins in dollars were minted there until 1997, when the new Eritrea Nakfa was introduced.
You should really give me some time, or you will start mixing it up and writing the same countries again.
Catalogue administrator
Quote: "Jarcek"​You should really give me some time, or you will start mixing it up and writing the same countries again.
​Don't worry, myself and jokinen have got it all assigned between us. Put in the ones with more numismatic info to avoid displeasing people. :)
I will try to do some this evening. I will update the list in the first post to alert you and everybody else of which have been already uploaded.
Catalogue administrator
Quote: "CassTaylor"
Quote: "Jarcek"​You should really give me some time, or you will start mixing it up and writing the same countries again.
​​Don't worry, myself and jokinen have got it all assigned between us. Put in the ones with more numismatic info to avoid displeasing people. :)

All fine, but can you please pay attention to the spelling of 'its' as a possessive pronoun rather than 'it's', which is a contraction of 'it is'?

Regards from the spelling police ;-)
Split my France paragraph into reasonably sized France and France-Kingdom

In the French Revolution of 1789, an unstable Republic was born in 1792, with instability eventually quelled by the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1799 and 1804, France's eventual domination of Europe ended with his defeats at Borodino and Leipzig then Waterloo in 1815. The unstable regimes set up in France in the 19th century saw various revolutions in 1830, 1848, 1852, and 1871's war saw Germany overtake France as the major European power after Napoléon III's defeat at Sédan (1870), and France's alignment with Britain and Russia in the lead up to WWI, which again saw France become the major power in Europe. This ended with appeasement in the 1930s leading to the fall of France early in WWII in 1940, with the Free French under Charles de Gaulle eventually liberating Occupied and Vichy France by 1944 with Allied help. Decolonization and the establishment of the 5th Republic under De Gaulle contributed mostly to the making of modern France, which today is the largest country on the continent, and co-founder of the EEC/ EU. France maintained a constant Franc from 1795 onwards, with a revaluation (the New Franc) in 1960, until the switch to the Euro in 1999./2001.

Founded by Clovis I in 496 after the Western Roman Empire's fall in 476, the Kingdom of France was one of the domains of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, becoming known in 9th century Europe as West Francia. Throughout the Middle Ages, France expanded in size, stopping the Moors at the battle of Tours, and then annexing Normandy and Brittany into France. Various wars were fought against England (1337-1453), the Italian States (1494-1497) and the Holy Roman Empire (1618-1648), with the country becoming an absolute monarchy under the Bourbon dynasty. It was the foremost power in continental Europe under Louis XIV's conquests in various wars of succession, but the loss of France's American colonies in 1763 to Great Britain marked the beginning of a period of stagnation, made worse by the financial deficit created by the funding of America's rebellion in 1778-1783, eventually culminating in the French Revolution of 1789. France used the Livre Tournois from 985 onwards, until the Franc replaced it in 1795.
Quote: "CassTaylor"​Split my France paragraph into reasonably sized France and France-Kingdom

​In the French Revolution of 1789, an unstable Republic was born in 1792, with instability eventually quelled by the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1799 and 1804, France's eventual domination of Europe ended with his defeats at Borodino and Leipzig then Waterloo in 1815. The unstable regimes set up in France in the 19th century saw various revolutions in 1830, 1848, 1852, and 1871's war saw Germany overtake France as the major European power after Napoléon III's defeat at Sédan (1870), and France's alignment with Britain and Russia in the lead up to WWI, which again saw France become the major power in Europe. This ended with appeasement in the 1930s leading to the fall of France early in WWII in 1940, with the Free French under Charles de Gaulle eventually liberating Occupied and Vichy France by 1944 with Allied help. Decolonization and the establishment of the 5th Republic under De Gaulle contributed mostly to the making of modern France, which today is the largest country on the continent, and co-founder of the EEC/ EU. France maintained a constant Franc from 1795 onwards, with a revaluation (the New Franc) in 1960, until the switch to the Euro in 1999./2001.

​Founded by Clovis I in 496 after the Western Roman Empire's fall in 476, the Kingdom of France was one of the domains of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, becoming known in 9th century Europe as West Francia. Throughout the Middle Ages, France expanded in size, stopping the Moors at the battle of Tours, and then annexing Normandy and Brittany into France. Various wars were fought against England (1337-1453), the Italian States (1494-1497) and the Holy Roman Empire (1618-1648), with the country becoming an absolute monarchy under the Bourbon dynasty. It was the foremost power in continental Europe under Louis XIV's conquests in various wars of succession, but the loss of France's American colonies in 1763 to Great Britain marked the beginning of a period of stagnation, made worse by the financial deficit created by the funding of America's rebellion in 1778-1783, eventually culminating in the French Revolution of 1789. France used the Livre Tournois from 985 onwards, until the Franc replaced it in 1795.


Kingdom of France is an excellent piece, nicely summarised. The French one contains very long aggregated sentences. I prefer to have no more than one comma in a sentence for the purpose of readability. Not that I never break that rule of thumb though ;-)

Napoleon's defeat is probably witnessed differently in France, but for me the Russian campaign of 1812 is the most symbolic of his demise and the Battle of Waterloo the final blow. It is indeed worth mentioning that France influenced the modern world to great degrees, both during Louis XIV's and Napoleon's rule. Especially Napoleon is seen too much as a warmonger, but at the same time he allowed many new concepts to break with old aristocratic conventions laying the foundations of how modern societies are organised.

French was the dominant language of all of Europe's upper classes until the early 1900's. Two world wars, which France nominally won but effective lost more than it gained (France was only powerful because of its alliance with the UK and the USA), reduced the importance of French as a global language. One of its last remnants are audible at the Eurovision song contests: douze points.
Quote: "jokinen"
Quote: "CassTaylor"​Split my France paragraph into reasonably sized France and France-Kingdom
​​
​​In the French Revolution of 1789, an unstable Republic was born in 1792, with instability eventually quelled by the rise of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1799 and 1804, France's eventual domination of Europe ended with his defeats at Borodino and Leipzig then Waterloo in 1815. The unstable regimes set up in France in the 19th century saw various revolutions in 1830, 1848, 1852, and 1871's war saw Germany overtake France as the major European power after Napoléon III's defeat at Sédan (1870), and France's alignment with Britain and Russia in the lead up to WWI, which again saw France become the major power in Europe. This ended with appeasement in the 1930s leading to the fall of France early in WWII in 1940, with the Free French under Charles de Gaulle eventually liberating Occupied and Vichy France by 1944 with Allied help. Decolonization and the establishment of the 5th Republic under De Gaulle contributed mostly to the making of modern France, which today is the largest country on the continent, and co-founder of the EEC/ EU. France maintained a constant Franc from 1795 onwards, with a revaluation (the New Franc) in 1960, until the switch to the Euro in 1999./2001.
​​
​​Founded by Clovis I in 496 after the Western Roman Empire's fall in 476, the Kingdom of France was one of the domains of the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne, becoming known in 9th century Europe as West Francia. Throughout the Middle Ages, France expanded in size, stopping the Moors at the battle of Tours, and then annexing Normandy and Brittany into France. Various wars were fought against England (1337-1453), the Italian States (1494-1497) and the Holy Roman Empire (1618-1648), with the country becoming an absolute monarchy under the Bourbon dynasty. It was the foremost power in continental Europe under Louis XIV's conquests in various wars of succession, but the loss of France's American colonies in 1763 to Great Britain marked the beginning of a period of stagnation, made worse by the financial deficit created by the funding of America's rebellion in 1778-1783, eventually culminating in the French Revolution of 1789. France used the Livre Tournois from 985 onwards, until the Franc replaced it in 1795.

​​
​Kingdom of France is an excellent piece, nicely summarised. The French one contains very long aggregated sentences. I prefer to have no more than one comma in a sentence for the purpose of readability. Not that I never break that rule of thumb though ;-)

​Napoleon's defeat is probably witnessed differently in France, but for me the Russian campaign of 1812 is the most symbolic of his demise and the Battle of Waterloo the final blow. It is indeed worth mentioning that France influenced the modern world to great degrees, both during Louis XIV's and Napoleon's rule. Especially Napoleon is seen too much as a warmonger, but at the same time he allowed many new concepts to break with old aristocratic conventions laying the foundations of how modern societies are organised.

​French was the dominant language of all of Europe's upper classes until the early 1900's. Two world wars, which France nominally won but effective lost more than it gained (France was only powerful because of its alliance with the UK and the USA), reduced the importance of French as a global language. One of its last remnants are audible at the Eurovision song contests: douze points.
​Thanks for your kind remarks, I liked its layout as well :)
And yes, I will try not to forget the rules

It seemed silly to me in English but French is more different (it is= c'est, and its= son) something like that I think.
Many cities in France issued their own currency tokens (notgeld) to circulate alongside or in the place of usually hoarded coins. Following the economic and financial turmoil created both during and by the aftermath of WWI, the franc was devalued, and subsequently silver 50 centimes, 1 franc, and 2 Franc coins began to disappear from circulation fast, due to people hoarding them for their silver value. As a result, a coinage shortage occurred, and municipalities began issuing their own replacements starting midway through the First World War, and continuing into the 1920s. The notgeld issues had ended by 1931, by which point new Chambres de Commerce issues had become widely available and circulating. Most of those coins were made of low-value metals like zinc or aluminium and stamp coins were also widely made. French colonies where the franc circulated also issued their own notgeld during the 1920s.

Guadeloupe is an island in the Windward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean that was first settled by French explorers in 1635. It was frequently occupied by the British during their various wars against France, in the 17th and 18th centuries, most notably by French royalists in 1791 following the revolution. The sugar plantations there struggled with the abolition of slavery in 1848. Guadeloupe used coins minted for all French New World colonies marked 'Colonies Françaises', or counter marked coins until the first coins were minted for it in 1903 in 50 centimes and 1 Franc copper-nickel denominations. During WWII the islands remained under Vichy for most of the war. Today it remains an overseas department of France, with its dependencies,and uses the Euro.

Martinique is an island in the Lesser Antilles in the Eastern Caribbean that was first settled by French explorers in 1635. It was frequently occupied by the British during their various wars against France, in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1815 slave trading was abolished, but slavery itself not until 1848. In 1897 the first coins in values of 50 centimes and 1 franc in copper-nickel were issued for Martinique. During WWII the island was under Vichy until towards the end of the war. Today it remains an overseas department of France, and uses the Euro.

Réunion is an island located off the coast of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. It was first settled in 1665 by the French East India Company, named the Îles (du France et) Bourbon initially, until the last part of it's name was changed by Napoléon to 'Îles de France et Bonaparte'. The old name was instated in 1816, by which point neighbouring Île Maurice (Mauritius) had been lost to the British, and it was renamed Réunion in 1848 after slavery there was abolished. The first coins minted for Réunion were in 1896, in 50 centimes and 1 franc issues in copper-nickel. The island was under Vichy in WWII until 1942, when Free France took over there. Today it remains an overseas department of France, and uses the Euro.

Lorraine is a region located in eastern France, made up in the middle ages of many fiefdoms and small duchies, but had been mostly ruled/influenced by the French monarch from the mid 15th century onwards. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was annexed piece-by piece by Louis XIV and XV, formally annexing it into France by 1766. It mainly issued coinage in the livre tournois currency of Ancìen Regime France for most of it's numismatic history, and following it's incorporation into France, it became a department, partially lost to Germany in the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, but regained in 1918 after WWI. Today it remains part of the new Grand-Est department of France.

French Equatorial Africa (Afrique Equatoriale Française, AEF) was a French colonial territory in Central Africa comprised of the various colonial provinces of Tchad, Gabon, Moyen-Congo, and Ubangi-Shari, united into one administrative entity in 1910 following their acquisition by France in the Scramble for Africa. The colony provided troops for France during WWI, and was the first to switch allegiance under it's Governor Fèlix Éboué to Free France under de Gaulle in July 1940. The first coins issued for it were in 1943 in 5, 10, 25, 50 centimes and 1 Francs by Free France. Following the war it started using the CFA Franc, with issues beginning in 1948 in aluminium. It's composite parts eventually gained independence from France in 1960 as Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Chad.
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic north of Puerto Rico and west of the USA. It was first sighted in 1503 by Spanish captain Juan de Bermudez, after whom the islands are named. For over 100 years no one settled Bermuda except for shipwrecked sailors and a large number of pigs released by Europeans, which is why the Bermudian 1 Cent coin depicts a hog. British settlement began in 1609. In 1968 Bermuda became self-governing. Two years later it replaced the British Pound with the Bermudian Dollar which is at par with the US Dollar. Earlier occasional Bermudian coins do exist, with the 1793 Penny being famous for its design. In 1959 and 1964 commemorative silver Crowns were issued for the islands. Bermuda has a population of 64,000.
Quote: "jokinen"​Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic north of Puerto Rico and west of the USA. It was first sighted in 1503 by Spanish captain Juan de Bermudez, after whom the islands are named. For over 100 years no one settled Bermuda except for shipwrecked sailors and a large number of pigs released by Europeans, which is why the Bermudian 1 Cent coin depicts a hog. British settlement began in 1609. In 1968 Bermuda became self-governing. Two years later it replaced the British Pound with the Bermudian Dollar which is at par with the US Dollar. Earlier occasional Bermudian coins do exist, with the 1793 Penny being famous for its design. Bermuda has a population of 64,000.
​Just a request, could we add in a mention of the 1959 and 1964 crowns for 'earlier occasional coins'? Just that I have a soft spot for those coins :)
Done :)

Of course Bermuda is also famous for the short pants named after it. They were accepted as business attire by British colonists as it was often too hot to work in a full suit.

You won't see them in European financial districts, but I heard that in Australia and more tropical regions they are accepted as business wear.

The German Democratic Republic (GDR, DDR) known in German as the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, or commonly as East Germany, was a communist state established in 1949 from the post-WWII Soviet zone of occupation, under Walter Ulbricht. It issued coins of denominations from 1 pfennig to 1 mark in aluminium in it's first decades. Following widespread discontent, including an uprising in 1953, the East German government erected the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop defectors to the West, for which it is most famous for. Following the introduction of détente and Ostpolitik from the West in the 1970s, the more stable East German government minted commemorative coins, which would continue until the reunification. Tensions grew again in the 1980s, which culminated in the collapse of the authoritarian government, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The country eventually acceded into the BDR (West Germany) in 1990.

Germany had been fractured until its 1871 unification by Prussia under Bismarck. The new German Empire issued decimalised mark coinage in denominations from 1 pfennig to 1 mark in standardized coinage, but German states in the Empire minted their own higher denomination marks, including many silver commemoratives. Realpolitik and Kulturkampf dominated Bismarck's Germany until his retirement in 1890, whereupon the young state's foreign policy came under the inexperienced Kaiser Wilhelm II. Colonial disputes, an arms race and alliance systems with Wilhelmine Germany's associates helped spark ethnic tensions in 1914 into a European War. The failure to quickly defeat France in August 1914 created stalemate on the western Front, while its war against Russia saw the Tsars overthrown, and the Bolsheviks agreed to peace in March 1918. By this point, silver commemorative coins of pre-war Germany had ceased to be made, zinc and aluminium coins being issued instead. The stalemate in the West ended with US troops tipping the balance, and the Armistice was signed on 11th November 1918. The Kaiser's abdication saw the new Weimar Republic established, which saw opposition from extremists. Reparations crushed Germany's economy and saw rapid hyperinflation, with aluminium coins minted in 1922 of high value. A new Rentenmark introduced in 1924 stabilized the financial situation, and during the 'Golden 20's', silver commemorative coins were issued just like before the war. The 1929 Crash and subsequent depression abruptly ended Weimar's golden age, and unemployment soared in a Germany susceptible to being seduced by extremists like the NSDAP, whose leader Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and turned Germany into an authoritarian fascist state, set on abrogating the Treaty of Versailles. 'Nazi' Germany remilitarized, annexing Austria and the Sudetenland in 1938. Appeasement by the West ended with the 1939 invasion of Poland, which began WWII in Europe. Coinage issued during this era was initially bronze, brass and silver, but by the war's end had become zinc and aluminium. The Wehrmacht's initial blitzkrieg successes overran France and bombarded Britain, but the invasion of the USSR, and the US joining the war in 1941, proved too much, and the tide turned by 1943, pushing the Axis back on all fronts until the Führer's suicide in 1945, when Allied troops reached Berlin. Hitlerite Germany was dismantled into four occupation zones, until the BRD and DDR's establishment in 1948.

(A little long, but I did my best to shorten it, and make it less politically motivated)

The German Federal Republic (BRD, Bundesrepublik Deutschland), known as West Germany before the reunification, is the modern state of Germany. Founded in 1948 from the US, British, and French zones of occupation), the new state was part of NATO from 1949, and the need to airlift supplies into the exclave of West Berlin from 1948 highlighted it's crucial position on the border of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. It issued coins under the 'Bank Deutscher Lander' from 1949, until the legend was replaced by 'Bundesrepublik Deutschland' in 1950. These coins were in denominations of 1 pfennig to 5 marks, and in many ways resembled the pre-war coins of Germany in terms of dimensions. In 1956/7 it co-founded the European Union (until 1993, the EEC) with France, but tensions with it's Eastern neighbour the GDR (East Germany) remained tense throughout the Cold War, until the 1970s brought along Détente and Ostpolitik, repairing relations briefly until tensions flared up again in the 1980s. The collapse of the Soviet bloc and the Berlin Wall in 1989 ended decades of separation, and the country was reunified in 1990. The 1993 formation of the EU placed Germany in a dominant position in Europe, and since then it has become a prosperous nation in the heart of Europe, switching to the Euro in 1999. Today it remains known for precision in engineering, and it's exports of cars and machinery.

The Saar is a territory on the western Rhine border of Germany, occupied by France by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. It was leased to France for 15 years, until a 1935 plebiscite returned the region to Germany. Following the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Saar was once again given to France as part of reparations, this time for 10 years, where 1954-5 coins in denominations of 10, 20, 50, and 100 francs were minted for the territory, on par with the French franc, until 1955, when it was returned to the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD) as a sign of goodwill for the creation of the EEC in 1957.

Greece is a country in Southeastern Europe, on the Aegean Sea, famous for being the birthplace of democracy and Western civilization. It issued coins in ancient times, but came under Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule for centuries, until the Greek war of independence in 1821. The first modern Greek coins were issued in 1828-30, during the war, in lepton and phoenix denominations. The established state in 1832 introduced the drachma as a more permanent currency, which joined the Latin Monetary union in 1868. The nation gradually recovered more of it's territories, starting with the Ionian Islands in 1864, Thessaly in 1878 and 1881, Crete in 1901 and Epirus-Macedonia, following the Balkan Wars in 1912-13. It remained neutral in WWI, until 1917, when the Allied Army at Salonika advanced to the Balkan Front. Following the war, Greece gained the Aegean islands and East Macedonia, but suffered from inflation, leaving the LMU in the 1920s. A republic was established in 1924, until 1935, when the Monarchy returned, with the Metaxas regime taking power in 1936. Greece joined the Allies in 1940 when Italy (unsuccessfully) invaded Epirus. It was occupied by the Axis in 1941 until 1944, when partisan groups liberated the country. The post-war Greece was fought over in a bitter civil war, with the Communists defeated in 1946-7 with help from Britain. New coins weren't minted again until 1954, when a new drachma was introduced. The monarchy was once again ended in 1974 after the 'Reign of the Colonels', with a republican referendum establishing the current Hellenic republic. Greece adopted the Euro in 2002.

Hungary is a landlocked nation in Central Europe, famous for it's Danubian (waltz) musical culture, and paprika-rich cuisine. It is populated by the Magyar peoples, descended from Central Asian Hunnic tribes migrating around 896 to the Hungarian plains. The first coins minted by a Hungarian entity were Dénar coins, from 997 onwards. St Stephen converted the lands under his crown to Christianity around the year 1000, but the country endured a Mongol invasion. The national currency switched to Forints in 1310, famous for a gold florin coin popular in late medieval Europe. In 1526, the Ottoman Empire invaded Hungary, resulting in it drawing closer to Austria for protection. Eventually Austria had incorporated all of Hungary, some of it liberated from the declining Ottoman Empire, into it's own Empire by the 18th century, whereupon in 1754 the Austrian guilder was introduced to Hungary, known as 'Further Austria'. The 1857 decimalization of the guilder coincided with nationalism caused by the Napoleonic Wars, which resulted in an 1848 revolution in Hungary. To appease the Hungarian nobility, the 1867 compromise was enacted to make the entity of Austria-Hungary, which minted florin (forint) coins on par with the Austrian guilder until the Empire's implosion after WWI in 1918. The new independent Hungary was robbed of 2/3rd of it's land by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, came briefly under communist rule, but the Regency of Admiral Horothy in the interwar era offered some stability, with a new pengo currency. Hungary joined the Axis in 1941, but defected following Soviet occupation in 1944, resulting in hyperinflation in 1945-6. A new communist regime was installed, and the new Filler currency was introduced to replace the Pengo. An insurrection in 1956 shows how unpopular the regime was, and it fell in 1989 with the iron Curtain. Hungary joined the EU in 2004, but does not as of yet use the Euro.
Iceland is a small island nation in the North Atlantic ocean, famous for it's remoteness, and volcanic geological composition.First settled by Vikings around the 9th century AD, the island then passed between a number of different owners, eventually falling into the possession of the Kingdom of Denmark (later Denmark-Norway). Denmark ruled Iceland as a colonial possession until 1874, when home rule and a constitution were applied. Unofficial coinages was minted in 1846 and 1900-01 by private companies. In 1918 the country became a sovereign nation in personal union with Denmark. The first official coins of Iceland were minted in the 1920s in Aurar and Krone denominations, on par with the Danish krone. In 1930 remarkable 2, 5 and 10 kronur commemoratives were issued for the anniversary of Althing. In WWII the island was invaded by Britain in 1940 following the fall of Denmark to stop the Kriegsmarine from using it as a naval base. It was the occupied by the US for the remainder of the war. Coins were issued during the war as usual, but the design was changed in 1946 after the personal union with Denmark was dissolved. In 1980 a new Kronur was introduced, which remains in use today. Iceland is part of the EEC, but not the EU.

India is a large country in South Asia, with an iconic culture, famous for it's monuments, exotic wildlife, spice-rich national cuisine, and exports of tea, spices, silk and opium. It gained it's independence after over 150 years in the British Empire in 1947, but the Partition plan separated the Muslim-majority areas of Baluchistan and Bengal from India into a new state called Pakistan. This resulted in many deaths on both sides of the new arbitrary border. It was further rocked by Gandhi's 1948 assassination. India became the Republic of India officially in 1950, and reclaimed first the French port of Chandernagnore, then the rest of French India in 1954, followed by invading Portuguese India in 1961. The new state has had tensions with it's neighbours, including a three way dispute between India, Pakistan and China over Kashmir, and conflict in 1962 with China. The Republic of India has issued coins in Rupees, decimalized since 1957, and many commemorative 50 and 100 rupee coins since.

(for India- British, French and Portuguese I have used edits by ashlobo)

British colonial presence in India began in the mid 17th century, when trading posts were founded on the coast by the East india Company. Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, British colonial presence there grew, with the acquisition of provinces from Portugal and France following the latter's defeat by Robert Clive in the Seven Years War. The East India Company played off local rulers against one another to gain hegemony in the area, and after the Carnatic wars, the weakened Mughal and Maratha empires collapsed. The only British coins issued before 1862 in india were those by the East India Company, in 1798, 1830, 1835, and 1840 most notably. The British conquests of Sind and Punjab in the 1840s brought the Raj into constant conflict with Afghanistan, but more notably, the Sepoy Rebellion (1st War of independence in India) of 1857 sparked unrest, and the crown acquired India from the East India Company in 1862. The new coinage minted from 1862 portrayed the British monarch, similar in dimension to the EIC's earlier coins. When Queen Victoria acquired the Empress of India title in 1877, the legend on the coins' obverse was updated accordingly. Indian states, semi-independent in the Raj, issued coins of their own, sometimes on par with the British Indian Rupee. The expansion of the 'jewel in the crown' saw Burma and Baluchistan annexed by 1900, and the Raj provided troops for Britain in WWI on several fronts. The 1919 Amritsar massacre, however helped shape public opinion against British rule in favour of the Indian national congress, headed by Gandhi and Nehru between the wars, with a famous 1930 Salt tax protest being one of many civil disobedience/nonviolent resistance movements they headed. During WWII, the Raj provided troops to fight the Japanese in Burma, but anti-colonial sentiments grew after the Bengal famine in 1943. Eventually, following the war's end, in 1947 India became independent, with a Partition plan carried out.


​​French colonial presence in India began in the early 17th century, after which the expansion of French colonies was precipitated under Louis XIV. Most coins minted in Dokdos irregularly were issued during this time.The Seven Years War, however saw British General Robert Clive take most of France's colonial possessions in India, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the only French possessions left in India were Pondicherry, Mahé, Chandernagnore, Yanaon, and Karikal, each only comprised of a few small port cities. France maintained these tiny outposts out of 'sentimental value' in the British Raj. They stayed Free French from 1940 onwards in WWII. They were given up to the Republic of India in 1954 following plebiscites that overwhelmingly saw the colonies vote to join the Indian union.

Portuguese presence in India began with Vasco da Gama's voyages in 1498, and by the early 16th century, Portuguese trading posts in India had already been established, at Bombay and Goa. They were briefly Spanish until Portugal's independence in 1640. By the 18th century, however, most of these ports had been traded to England following Charles II's marriage to Catherine of Braganza, a Portuguese princess. By the 19th century, Portugal maintained parts of this trading post empire in the form of Goa, and Diu and Daman, which issued coins of it's own in Rupias and later in Escudos. The Portuguese revolution of 1910 did not destabilize these colonies, and in 1961 were annexed to the now independent India. Portugal did not recognize India's authority over the former Portuguese Indian enclaves under 1974, the year of the overthrow of its military junta .

Ireland is a nation situated on the British Isles. Dominated from London by English and Norman noblemen since the 12th century AD, the Ulster plantations and the Flight of the Earls following a defeat against England in the late Tudor era began a bitter divide between northern Protestant Ulster and southern Catholic Ireland, brought under English rule by Cromwell following the brutal 1649 Drogheda campaign. 'Gun money' was minted during the war between William of Orange and James II in 1690 for Ireland. Irish nationalism grew, fostering rebellions such as the one by Wolfe Tone in 1798 resulting in it becoming united with Great Britain in 1801 to form the United Kingdom. Coins were minted on par with the Pound sterling from the reign of James I onwards in copper for 'Hibernia'. A severe potato blight in 1845 led to mass emigration, and demands for Home Rule grew throughout the later 19th century, culminating in the 1916 Easter Rising, which led in turn to tensions creating the Irish War of Independence, a bitter struggle lasting until the Irish Free State's proclamation in 1922, with coins for 'Éire' being struck from 1928 onwards. It's neutrality in WWII and transition into the 1949 Republic of Ireland did not end the division with Ulster remaining in the UK, culminating in the Troubles through the 1960s, 70s and 80s. The Irish Punt was decimalized from 1971 onwards, as it was on par with the British Pound. Ireland joined the EEC in 1973 with Britain, and today uses the Euro.

Italy is a Mediterranean nation in southern Europe, famous for it's historic Roman sites, household cuisine, and breathtaking countrysides of vineyards and beaches. It was divided following the fall of the Roman Empire, and unified in 1861 by Giuseppe Garibaldi under Sardinia-Piedmont. The young state found friends in Prussia, whom helped it reclaim Venetia and Rome in 1866 and 1870 respectively. Coins were first minted in 1862 in similar dimensions to the lira coins of Piedmont, and Italy joined the Latin Monetary Union in 1865. The young nation participated in the scramble for Africa in 1890, seizing parts of East Africa, although failing to take Abyssinia in 1896. The new century saw new Art Nouveau inspired coins designed shortly before Italy's expansion into Libya in 1911. The entry into WWI in 1915 saw Italian troops decimated on the Alpine front, until the 1918 Battle of Vittorio Veneto turned the tide. Italy was however, unsatisfied with it's gains from WWI, and following the 1922 March on Rome, Benito Mussolini took power in 1925, with a new series of post-war coins renowned as Italy's best minted in the 1920s and 1930s. Diplomatically, however, Italy became aligned with NSDAP Germany after the Abyssinia crisis and the Anschluss, joining WWII in 1940. Italian East Africa and Libya were quickly overrun by the British, and Italy itself invaded in 1943 by the Allies, upon which a coup deposed Mussolini, and German troops occupied Northern Italy with a puppet republic. The Axis surrendered in 1945, and a 1946 referendum deposed the monarchy. The Lira continued as the currency, with coins in aluminium minted in the 1940s and 1950s. Italy was a founding member of the EEC in 1956/7, and switched to the Euro in 1999.
Brazil is the largest country of South America and the only one on that continent that is Portuguese-speaking. It covers around half of South America's area and has a population of 206 million. Brazil was first visited by Portuguese sailors in 1500. The Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century urged the Portuguese King Joao to move the capital to Brazil, which eventually caused Brazil's full independence in 1822. It remained an imperial monarchy until a military coup in 1889, which made Brazil a republic. The 20th century was marked by political instability and multiple dictatorial regimes until a gradual liberalisation starting from 1985. The many regimes and bouts of high inflation are the reason for the large variety of Brazilian coinage, with many monetary reforms replacing earlier worthless currencies. Since the 1990's Brazil has witnessed considerable economic growth, adding to the prosperity and stability of the country, even though this has been challenged recently by political scandals and falling revenues from natural resources.
Thought I'd revive this topic-

Lithuania is a small country in Eastern Europe, located between the Kaliningrad exclave and Latvia on the Baltic coast. It has had a long history of domination and settlement by Vikings and Teutonic Knights, before the 14th century Grand Duchy of Lithuania grew to become a superpower in the region, with a groat currency until the mid 16th century. It formed part of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth until it's final partition in 1795, whereupon most of modern day Lithuania's territory came under the rule of the Russian Empire, with a sliver of the southwest (Memel) going to Prussia/Germany. Lithuania regained it's independence in 1918 upon a declaration from WWI German-occupied territory, but a firm establishment of the new state did not come until the early 1920s, following border disputes with Germany, Poland and the new R.S.F.S.R state. A new litas currency was introduced in 1922 to replace the circulating marks and rubles, which lasted through the interwar era until Lithuania's annexation by the USSR in June 1940. Lithuania was occupied by Germany from 1941 to 1944, in WWII, but following it's liberation by the Red Army, remained as the Lithuanian SSR until the 'Singing Revolutions' of 1987-91 led to a declaration of independence from the USSR in 1990. Lithuania introduced the new litas in 1991, but after it's 2004 entry into the EU, now uses the Euro, since 2014.

Luxembourg is a small nation in Northwestern Europe, between Belgium, France and Germany. First created as part of the Holy Roman Empire in the 9th century AD, it's first currencies were a mix of guilders, florins and thalers from neighboring states, with the florin being the established currency until 1555. The Austrian Netherlands issued coins for Luxembourg until it's 1795 annexation into Revolutionary France. It remained part of France until the 1815 Congress of Vienna recreated the state as a Grand-Duchy, the only such state that still exists in the world today. A Franc currency tied to the French and Belgian Francs was introduced in 1854. Luxembourg's strategic position on Western European borders led to an 1867 treaty destroying it's fortifications, and in 1890 it's Salic law led to the severance of a personal union with the Netherlands. It was invaded and occupied in 1914-18 by Germany in WWI, again in 1940-44 in WWII. it eventually became a founding state of the EEC/EU in 1957, and now uses the Euro currency (since 1999/2002).

Malaya is the official name used to refer to the collection of British colonies, protectorates, and client-states on the Malaya peninsula. It was used from approximately 1936 onward, replacing earlier terms such as the 'Straits Settlements' and 'Malay states'. British presence on the Malay peninsula dates back to at least 1786, with the founding of Penang. Coins bearing the name 'Straits Settlements' (referring to settlements such as Singapore or Malacca) were issued until the end of the reign of King George V, and Malay client states under British influence/protectorates would mint their own coins until the early 20th century, when these generally ceased to be legal tender, and British-minted coinage would circulate instead. The first coins to be issued with the legend '(Commissioners of Currency) Malaya' were 1/2 cent to 20 cents coins in 1939, in similar dimensions to the latest generation of Straits coinage, and continued to be minted, throughout the Japanese occupation in WWII, with minor design, purity and metal changes (in 1941, 1943 and 1948 respectively), until the early 1950s, at the end of the reign of George VI, when new coinage bearing the legend 'Malaya and British Borneo' was released starting in 1953 with the portrait of Elizabeth II.

Malaya and British Borneo is the official name used to refer to the collection of British colonial possessions in Malaya and North Borneo; note that this technically excludes Sarawak and Brunei. In 1953, upon the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, which coincided with this rearrangement of the colonial administrative regions, new coins (1 cent-50 cents) were issued, in almost identical dimensions to the earlier 'Commissioners of Currency Malaya' coins (1939-1951). Only one series was ever minted, before the colony's independence in 1963 as Malaysia (or the Malay Confederation, excluding Singapore). Silver coins were issued in 1953 as non-circulating coins, and an oddity is the 1962 1 cent coin, the only coin minted without the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II under the name 'Malaya and British Borneo'.

Mauritius is a small island country located in the Indian Ocean. First charted by the Portuguese in 1507-13, the Dutch settled there in the 17th century, wiping out the now infamous local Dodo population. Colonized by French sailors in 1735, the island became known as 'Ile de France' or 'Ile Maurice', administered by the French East India Company along with Ile Bourbon (later Reunion). The British landed there in 1810 during the Napoleonic Wars, and the island was formally ceded to them in 1815. The first coins were made in 1822, in Livres, shortly after which slavery was abolished there in 1835. British coinage did not begin until the 1870s, when a decimalized Rupee coinage was introduced to the island. The island's garrison captured neighbouring Reunion from Vichy France in 1942 during WWII, and Mauritius became independent via referendum in 1968, to become a Commonwealth republic. It continues to use the Mauritius rupee today.

Monaco is an European micro state located on the southern coast of France. It is renowned worldwide for it's casinos (Monte Carlo), and being home to many wealthy celebrities, most famously Grace Kelly who married into the Monegasque Grimaldi royal house, by which Monaco has been ruled by since 1633, it's date of independence from Spain (or 1641, from France). It issued Scudo coinage of it's own throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, like many neighboring Italian states, but was annexed by Revolutionary France from 1793 to 1814. The Congress of Vienna established it as a protectorate of Sardinia until 1860, when neighboring Nice was seceded to France. Coins were minted in 1837-38, but not again until 1924, with the exception of some gold issues of high denominations. Aluminium coins were minted during the Italian/German occupation of Monaco in WWII, in 1943-45, but regular issues resumed in 1946-7. Since the mid 19th century the Monegasque franc had been tied to the French franc, and with the introduction of the new Franc in 1960, Monaco followed suit. It adopted the Euro in 2002, despite not being fully in the EU.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a low-lying nation in Northwestern Europe, founded as the Dutch Republic in 1581, and formalized in 1648 following the Eighty Years War against Habsburg Spain. The nation prospered under the Netherlands East Indies Company's colonial exploits and voyages to the East Indies and Caribbean, growing into one of the major powers of the 17th and 18th centuries, one of the first colonial powers of the modern age. Dutch Guilders and trade Ducats (in gold) were issued and circulated all over Europe and the New World. It was briefly annexed into Napoleonic France, first as the satellite Batavian Republic, then annexation until 1814, whereupon it gained Belgium in the Congress of Vienna, until it's eventual independence in 1830-39. The Netherlands adopted both a decimal version of the Guilder,and a position of neutrality in Europe, abandoning Salic-law Luxembourg in 1890, and remaining neutral in WWI, providing asylum for Belgian refugees and later, Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918. The nation prospered in the 1920s, reviving it's gold ducats as trade and bullion coins (which still are minted today). In 1940 Germany invaded, and the Netherlands was occupied until 1945's liberation by the Allies. Zinc coins were minted during the occupation and Free Dutch forces fought the Japanese in the Pacific theater, after which Indonesia gained it's independence after a struggle in 1945-49. In the post war years, the guilder was revived, and the Netherlands became one of the founding members of the EEC in 1957. The Euro was introduced in 1999/2002.

Curacao is a small Dutch overseas possession in the southern Caribbean, and is best known for it's namesake trademark blue liquor. First settled by the Dutch in the early 17th century, after independence from Spain, the islands remained Dutch, changing hands between the Dutch, French and British several times in the wars of the 18th century, with a remarkable 1795 slave revolt. Dutch sovereignty over the islands was restored in 1815, and has continued there ever since. Slavery there was abolished in 1863, and the discovery of oil nearby helped the islands rise in fame and prosperity. Coins were first minted there in the 1820s, with tokens issued in 1874, and coins in 1900-1, but not until 1942 were regular issues minted by the Free Dutch forces. From 1954 the colony has been part of the 'Netherlands Antilles', with coins minted as such, until it's dissolution in 2010, whereupon Curacao is once more a constituent country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, using the US dollar and Netherlands Antilles Guilder/Florin still.

Panama is a small Central American country, located at the narrowest point of Central America between two oceans. It was first colonized by Spain in 1513 by explorer Balboa, whose profile appears on many Panamanian coins. Around 1700, the Scottish Darien scheme attempted to set up a colony of 'New Caledonia' in the region, which was ultimately surrendered to the Spanish and resulted in British Union. Panama remained in Spanish hands for over a century afterwards, until the revolutions of Central America resulted in Panama becoming part of a Gran Colombia becoming independent in 1819, and later part of Colombia from 1831 onward. From the mid 19th century onward, many envisioned a canal cutting through the Panama isthmus. A French attempt to construct the canal ended in failure, and in 1903 the US backed a rebellion against Colombia by the new Republic of Panama, who first minted coins in 1904, including the famously tiny 'Panama Pill'. Construction began that year on the Panama Canal, completed in 1914 and opened the following year with an exposition in San Francisco. Panama minted coins in odd denominations between the wars, such as 1 and 1/4 centisimos, and 2 and 1/2 centisimo coins. A new series of coins was issued in the 1930s, known as the Balboa. In 1953, a 50th anniversary of independence series was minted, and in 1977, the treaty that stipulated the hand back of Panama's canal zone to Panama from the US was signed, with that result in 1999. Today Panama is most well known for the Canal that cuts through it.

German New Guinea was a former colonial territory on the northeastern 1/4th of the island of New Guinea, covering the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago as well. It was first colonized around 1892 by Leo Caprivi for the German Empire, and shortly after, in 1894-95, what are commonly considered the most desirable coins of the German Empire's colonial mintage were struck; the infamous 'Bird of Paradise' series, from 1 pfennig to 20 marks. Despite this, the colony remained generally underdeveloped, and when WWI broke out in August 1914, Australian troops were quick to seize the territory, and added it to the British Empire's possessions on New Guinea. Following the war's end in 1918, New Guinea was turned over to Australia as a mandate until 1975, when it became independent as Papua New guinea.
The Dutch Republic was established in 1581. The Treaty of Munster in 1648 ended the Eighty Years War and formalised the recognition of the Dutch Republic as a souvereign state.
Quote: "jokinen"​The Dutch Republic was established in 1581. The Treaty of Munster in 1648 ended the Eighty Years War and formalised the recognition of the Dutch Republic as a souvereign state.
​Edited :D
Ok, I had enough for one day. Or months? I do not know. What I know that I forgot this. But you should start seeing your creations - usually those shorter - now on the country pages.

I did not have time to shorten some long ones, so I will give it a rest now. :)
Catalogue administrator
What about Hong Kong?
This is my first attempt so I don't know if I did good or not, but here it goes.

Sweden is a kingdom located in the northern part of Europe on the Scandinavian Peninsula, between Norway in the west and Finland in the East. Among the Nordic countries, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, Sweden is the largest, both in size and population. Sweden was in contant wars with Denmark, Russia and Poland, and in the early 1600's Sweden became and Empire by owning Finland, Estonia, Livonia, and Pomerania, among others. Sweden also had overseas colonies sich as Swedish Gold Coast, Guadeloupe, Saint-Barthélemy, New Sweden b the Delaware River, and Tobago. In 1814 Sweden forced Norway to join the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. This is also the last war Sweden participated in. In the two world wars Sweden acted as a neutral state and helped thousands of jews to flee by boat from Denmark before Denmark got occupied by Germany.


Swedish Pomerania, situated on what is now the Baltic coast of Germany and Poland, was a Dominon in the Swedish Empire from 1630–1815 with a population of 82,827 in 1764 and 118,112 in 1805. The legal system in Pomerania was in a state of great confusion, due to the lack of a consistent legislation or even the most basic collection of laws and instead consisting of a disparate collection of legal principles. The Swedish rule brought, if nothing else, at least the rule of law into the court system.
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