Product Description

Throughout history, many individuals have dreamt of becoming a king, queen or president. Some have been successful, while others were pure fantasists. But both types took themselves very seriously, and often produced coins, banknotes, stamps, and heraldic devices as proof of their status. From ancient to modern times, from the Far East to the New World, this book looks at examples of pretend sovereigns and phantom countries, rebel states and royal imposters.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2452481 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 204 pages

Customer Reviews

Entertaining, quirky and highly informative
The authors tell of how people, places and even nations in history have tried to assume titles, kingships and empires by creating myths around themselves of varying degrees of plausibility. These vary from the justified (escaped slaves seting up their own governance) to the questionable (the Stuart pretenders) to the flaky (various successors to Byzantine emperors) to the completely mad.

They span a huge range of history from antiquity to the late 20th century in a brisk and engaging manner, managing to avoid taking too condemnatory a stance on the claimants' credentials while also gently making their opinions on these matters clear.

This is all illustrated with some wonderful photos, focusing quite heavily on coinage (the authors are authorities on coins from the British Museum) but also including things like stamps, arms etc. issued by various pseudo-states and nobility.

A real gem.