Zaire's 1994 FIFA World Cup commemorative program was issued by a government already in terminal collapse. By 1997, the year this piece was struck, Mobutu Sese Seko had fled the country following Laurent-Désiré Kabila's advance across the country, and the state itself ceased to exist — renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo within months. Coins dated 1997 and denominated in Nouveaux Zaïres are among the final numismatic artifacts of a currency that had already been redenominated once in 1993 at a ratio of 1:3,000,000 against the original Zaïre.
Zaire's 1994 FIFA World Cup commemorative program was issued by a government already in terminal collapse. By 1997, the year this piece was struck, Mobutu Sese Seko had fled the country following Laurent-Désiré Kabila's advance across the country, and the state itself ceased to exist — renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo within months. Coins dated 1997 and denominated in Nouveaux Zaïres are among the final numismatic artifacts of a currency that had already been redenominated once in 1993 at a ratio of 1:3,000,000 against the original Zaïre.