by Márcio Maso Panzani

A few years ago, while in the middle of a big rearrangement on my shelves, I've realised I had cans from a few 'countries' which were no longer real countries anymore! As a matter of fact, Czechoslovakia had split into Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the Soviet Union into 15 different Republics!

This page is the result of a research I've made in a lot of internet sites⁽¹⁾ trying to find out how many 'former-countries' exist. I think this article is useful for all collectors and not only for the OC/OC ones; cans released before and after country changes are different cans under any xxxxxxxx. The result of this research is the table below; it shows splits, merges, and renames that occurred in the last 50-60 years.

Obviously, there is no pretension regarding all data here exposed is exact; a lot of details should and will be correct while I receive new inputs from the readers; I hope we can find more 'unknown' cans! If you have 'any' information about 'any' cone from UK or Ireland please drop me an e-mail.

Actualy some cans are know from advertising pieces like magazine ads, posters, and folders from that time. We know only 3 samples of 'Castletown Isle of Man First Prize Ale'; and it is not fully confirmed that 'The Felinfoel Brewery Co. Ltd. Pale Ale' with 340ml was ever produced! I only list the year of the can's release if it is absolutely comfirmed; I will update this column whenever new data arises.

Images are available for more than 45 of the cans; many thanks to Maurizio D'Arrò and Neil Lawrence for their help. Just click in the blue links. Many of the images have a very poor quality but remember we know some cans only from magazine ads, posters and dumpers; some were electronicaly retouched. New images will be added as soon as I receive them from new sources.