This is an updated version of a story first published on Nov. 26, 2023. The original video can be viewed here .
Ok, name that country: It's planted opposite Europe, sitting proudly on the other side of the North Sea. It's a monarchy that features its own currency, postage stamps, constitution, national anthem, love of tea, and a pair of handsome princes, born two years apart. We speak of.
.. Sealand.
A crumb of real estate off the English coast that declared its independence in 1967, Sealand has a full-time population of...
one. It has a land mass the size of..
.. roughly two tennis courts.
Its leading export might be...
the national mythology, a history of piracy, coups, countercoups, rogues, and off-shore Internet schemes. It may make tiny Lichtenstein look like China by comparison. But as we found out last year, by rights, Sealand is a sovereign nation.
Join us, as we compile some notes from a truly small island. Prince Michael: We can see Sealand over there, by the way, now. You see that? Jon Wertheim: Oh, there she is.
Prince Michael: Yeah, yeah. On the starboard bow. Behold, the world's smallest state.
.. It's a micronation in the extreme, a principality which sits—or stands—only seven miles off the coast of England.
.. Its self-described reigning monarch is this guy, Prince Michael Bates.
Jon Wertheim: Here we are. Prince Michael: Yep. Jon Wertheim: A platform and a couple of concrete husks.
And-- Prince Michael: Yeah. Jon Wertheim: --this is a state. Prince Michael: Y.