Rules for a World Coin Collection?

Collecting a coin from every current country in the world has been a dream of mine. The more coins I've collected the more I've realized just how much grey area there is on a “complete” collection. 

My original criteria for a complete collection:

- At least one coin for every country

- The coins must be circulated within its stated country (or at least a proof of a circulated coin)

- If the country is part of a monetary union (e.g. the European Union), you need to find coins from when they printed their own money

- If the country changed its name, the old coins don't count towards the new country (E.g. Ceylon → Sri Lanka)

I've had to make quite a few compromises.

- If the country never printed its own money but is part of a monetary union, coins printed with the country's name are required. (E.g. Chad is part of the CFA, but once printed a chad coin for standard circulation)

- Continuing from the last point, the 'Eastern Caribbean $' never named its countries on its coins. Collectors coins become acceptable here.

- If the country never printed money and simply borrowed a neighbour's currency (E.g. Niue uses NZ$), collectors coins will have to do again.

- Grey area countries (Kosovo, Tranistria, Northern Cyprus) only count as countries if they printed their own money

 I was wondering what other people have decided about the same issues. Tell me YOUR rules.

For countries that never issued anything, I would suggest getting fantasy coins such as fantasy Montenegro euro coin. Also I would suggest editing 1 rule, If an item was once used in that country it should count, eg:- A British East Africa Coin will count for Kenya, Uganda etc.

There is one rule in coin-collecting: No rules.
Everybody collects on the way he/she likes, it depends on intrest, budget, availability etc.
Btw coins ar not ‘printed’  but struck.

There are also coutries like lndia who in earler times had numerous independant states minting their own coins, some right up to 1948 so how would having just one coin of lndia take that into account.

sidnumi

For countries that never issued anything, I would suggest getting fantasy coins such as fantasy Montenegro euro coin. 

Montenegro had its own coins (https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?e=montenegro&r=&st=1-2-3-155-156&cat=y&im1=&im2=&ru=&ie=&ca=3&no=&v=&a=&dg=&i=&b=&m=&f=&t=&t2=&w=&mt=&u=&g=&se=&c=&wi=&sw=), why should be satisfied with a fantasy coin?

sidnumi

Also I would suggest editing 1 rule, If an item was once used in that country it should count, eg:- A British East Africa Coin will count for Kenya, Uganda etc.

Why? All these countries still exist and have their own coins.

The same for euro coinage. The circulating coins are legal tender in every country that uses the euro, but every single country still has his own coins, even if they all share the same reverses.

sidnumi

For countries that never issued anything, I would suggest getting fantasy coins such as fantasy Montenegro euro coin. Also I would suggest editing 1 rule, If an item was once used in that country it should count, eg:- A British East Africa Coin will count for Kenya, Uganda etc.

Montenegro issued their own coinage in the early 20th century. 

Offa

sidnumi

For countries that never issued anything, I would suggest getting fantasy coins such as fantasy Montenegro euro coin. Also I would suggest editing 1 rule, If an item was once used in that country it should count, eg:- A British East Africa Coin will count for Kenya, Uganda etc.

Montenegro issued their own coinage in the early 20th century. 

Oh crap, I forgot that Montenegro had coinage, but then what about Kosovo fantasy coins?

Also, I said that former entities should count since maybe not everyone has the budget to buy a whole lot of countries and would be better off buying 1 coin from a larger former entity.

Why? All these countries still exist and have their own coins.

The same for euro coinage. The circulating coins are legal tender in every country that uses the euro, but every single country still has his own coins, even if they all share the same reverses.

I agree with this one, like the euro has many issuers with obvious differences but many others like former colonial issuers do not segregate by modern day boundaries and the same uniform coinage was used throughout, so I agree with your example like the euro, but I think uniform colonial coinage should count for all modern day constituents(due to budget) as those coins were once used in those countries.