Bosnia's 1996 Olympic issues were struck under extraordinary circumstances — the Dayton Agreement had been signed only months earlier, and the country was still formally reconstituting its central banking authority. The National Bank issued this series while Sarajevo itself was barely past the end of a siege that had lasted nearly four years, making these among the most geopolitically fraught commemorative issues of the decade.
Fencing had particular resonance for the Sarajevo games connection: the 1984 Winter Olympics had been the city's proudest modern moment, and the 1996 Atlanta series was partly a symbolic assertion of national continuity.
Bosnia's 1996 Olympic issues were struck under extraordinary circumstances — the Dayton Agreement had been signed only months earlier, and the country was still formally reconstituting its central banking authority. The National Bank issued this series while Sarajevo itself was barely past the end of a siege that had lasted nearly four years, making these among the most geopolitically fraught commemorative issues of the decade.
Fencing had particular resonance for the Sarajevo games connection: the 1984 Winter Olympics had been the city's proudest modern moment, and the 1996 Atlanta series was partly a symbolic assertion of national continuity.