Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of world commemorative coins


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.  

The result was delete. Sandstein 09:13, 12 August 2007 (UTC)

List of world commemorative coins

 * – (View AfD) (View log)

Dear friends. I have nominated this article for deletion. I will explain my concerns.

The problem with this article is not only that it is an incomplete list. The major problem is, that, due to its scope, it_never_can_become a complete list! The problem cannot be solved by expanding the list - improving is is not a solution. This article's status as an incomplete list is not a temporary situation, but a permanent one.

Compiling a more or less complete list of world commemorative coins is next to futile. If you want such a list, you should get the Standard Catalog of World Coins, and you'll find, say, 500-1000 pages in that book consisting exclusively of world commemorative coins listings. If someone thinks that such a list should be available on Wikipedia, go get the book first, and secondly start typing the 500-1000 pages of this material into this Wikipedia article. (Oh, well, I suppose we'll have a copyright problem then).

Another problem is, that noone knows what defines the content of the list. Whatever it is, it just doesn't list the commemorative coins of the world, as suggested in the headline. So we know it's a list, but not what it's a list OF. Once we have established that the article's status as incomplete is a permanent one, we should ask ourselves: is a list of a small and casual handful of commemorative coins relevant for Wikipedia? Does it contribute to our knowledge? No. Complete lists of individual nations is fine. We can use them to gain an overview and deepen our understanding of the corpus of commems of that particular country. A permanently incomplete list, inevitably falling short of being anywhere near complete, cannot develop into an article about the general properties of commemorative coins. It will necessarily be a list of _some_ commems - one is inclined to think, that it is actually a list of some particular collectors own favourite commemorative coins from his own collection. Regardless, it looks like that, and this does not meet Wikipedia standards (as per WP:NOT#BLOG).

I would suggest going for a different solution. There is already an article called "Commemorative coin". This article is already linking to some of the more substantial Wikipedia pages on commemorative coins of individual nations. As further reasonably sound Wiki articles on commems of various nations are developed, they too can be added in the "See also" section of "Commemorative coin".

The concept of the article is unworkable. We should delete it, because it cannot achieve any purpose that might make it relevant for Wikipedia. Good luck with future work. Alfons Åberg 02:07, 6 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Close and Speedy Delete this AfD and tell the nominator how to list AfD properly. This AfD: Articles for deletion/List of world commemorative coins has no header on the AfD and it doesn't link the dicussion to List of world commemorative coins so my vote is to close and delete this discussion until properly listed Sawblade05 02:27, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment. I've emended the nomination. Deor 02:35, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete and Include whats not on the Category:Commemorative_coins into it Since we already have a category on this subject, there's really not a need to have this list and all that lists that are there should be included in the Category:Commemorative_coins if it issn't there already, once that is done this list should be deleted.Sawblade05 02:40, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete Some countries chunk out so many different "commemorative coins" simply for commercial purposes that it will be near impossible to collect and maintain complete lists for these entities. A world-wide catch all list will be completely impossible to maintain. I must admit that I don't see the encyclopedic purpose in keeping many of the country-level lists either. Valentinian T / C 09:59, 6 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Delete per the rationale by Valentinian. Such a list is impossible to maintain given the sheer number of such coins being minted by the Royal Canadian Mint alone, never mind numismatic industries in places like the Isle of Man (did you know they produce a 25 ounce gold coin? That's insane!). Any coins notable enough to have their own articles already have a category. Obvoiusly there's nothing wrong with having an article on this subject, listing some of the most notable coins. An alternative to this list is perhaps to list the most valuable commemmorative coins since at least that's a maintainable list. 23skidoo 12:32, 6 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Repurpose There are individual national lists of commemorative coins. And the nominator Alfons Åberg has not raised AfD against them. So List of world commemorative coins can become a list of links to lists. But if the fate is delete, then the content must be carefully merged into national lists. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 02:01, 8 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment. I believe articles that are solely redirects to other articles are not accepted ccording to Wiki guidelines. However, Commemorative coin already links to the more substantial national lists, and can be used for this purpose. The content has already been merged (by me) into national lists, except where national lists are not yet created. You might wish to create such a new list in the case of Pakistan. The remaining listings would produce only stub class articles (in half the cases only a single coin is represented, maximum is 12). This goes for Australia, Belarus, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria, China, Cook Islands, Hutt River, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Monaco, Mongolia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Uruguay. Let it go, it's pure junk anyway. Alfons Åberg 18:23, 8 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletions.  -- Pax:Vobiscum 21:23, 7 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep, as a way to find find the separate national lists per ChochoPK, and as a home for the really short stub lists for the countries Alfons mentions above. Its currently a bad idea to make a list of commemorative coins of Nepal but the information should not be lost, in fact that title could be created as a redirect to the right place on this list, and then categorized. Rename this one to list of commemorative coins or list of commemorative coins by country. Kappa 23:15, 9 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment. Kappa, you are mentioning Nepal as an example. The List of world commemorative coins currently contains one (1) coin of Nepal. A decade ago there were 120 different commems of Nepal. Today, there are perhaps 150-200. Our current 'list' of Nepali commems includes less than one per cent of what it should. Similar concerns apply for all the other countries. Now if anyone would wish to write a list (or better: an article) on Nepali commems, be my guest. Bur there is no point in keeping a list of 1 coin in the mean time. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. The information will not be 'lost' in any case. Whenever someone wants to write an article on the subject, the appropriate information can be found in the Standard Catalog of World Coins, which should be available from any library. Alfons Åberg 02:46, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Well I think one (1) is better than 0, as it serves as an example. The list of 5 Japanese coins is also quite informative, telling me the status of Doraemon and Hello Kitty in their culture. Ideally the main list would also tell me things like when the first commem was issued by a country and what it was, and if it only produces them occasionally or makes large numbers of them like the Isle of Man. Kappa 08:08, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I've stuck out my vote, a list like this is only a good idea if the project supporting it wants it, and I don't think I have persuaded them. Kappa 00:47, 12 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.