Slovenia qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup — held jointly in South Korea and Japan — in dramatic fashion, eliminating Romania in a playoff on away goals. It was the country's first-ever World Cup appearance, coming just eleven years after independence. The tournament run ended in the group stage, but the qualification alone was sufficient cause for a commemorative issue.
The .900 fine gold specification places this squarely in a Slovenian commemorative tradition that favored lower-purity gold over the .999 standard more common elsewhere in Europe at the time.
Slovenia qualified for the 2002 FIFA World Cup — held jointly in South Korea and Japan — in dramatic fashion, eliminating Romania in a playoff on away goals. It was the country's first-ever World Cup appearance, coming just eleven years after independence. The tournament run ended in the group stage, but the qualification alone was sufficient cause for a commemorative issue.
The .900 fine gold specification places this squarely in a Slovenian commemorative tradition that favored lower-purity gold over the .999 standard more common elsewhere in Europe at the time.