Issued ahead of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, which Norway lobbied aggressively to host after narrowly losing the 1988 bid to Calgary. Lillehammer's 1994 Games were deliberately positioned as a return to smaller, more intimate winter competition — a deliberate rebuke of the commercialism that had overtaken the Summer Games. Norway funded an extensive cultural program alongside the athletics, and the commemorative coin program was part of that broader official presentation.
The .917 fineness places this squarely in the 22-karat crown gold tradition. KM#442 is the gold issue in a series that also included silver denominations struck for the same event.
Issued ahead of the Lillehammer Winter Olympics, which Norway lobbied aggressively to host after narrowly losing the 1988 bid to Calgary. Lillehammer's 1994 Games were deliberately positioned as a return to smaller, more intimate winter competition — a deliberate rebuke of the commercialism that had overtaken the Summer Games. Norway funded an extensive cultural program alongside the athletics, and the commemorative coin program was part of that broader official presentation.
The .917 fineness places this squarely in the 22-karat crown gold tradition. KM#442 is the gold issue in a series that also included silver denominations struck for the same event.