Guinea-Bissau's 1991 Olympic issue was struck ahead of the Barcelona Games, part of a wave of commemorative coinage from small nations leveraging the Olympic licensing framework to generate hard currency. The country had been through a single-party state under the PAIGC since independence in 1974, and its central bank was operating under severe constraints — foreign coin programs like this were one of the few reliable mechanisms for earning convertible revenue.
Nickel-plated steel rather than silver signals the budget tier of this issue unambiguously.
Guinea-Bissau's 1991 Olympic issue was struck ahead of the Barcelona Games, part of a wave of commemorative coinage from small nations leveraging the Olympic licensing framework to generate hard currency. The country had been through a single-party state under the PAIGC since independence in 1974, and its central bank was operating under severe constraints — foreign coin programs like this were one of the few reliable mechanisms for earning convertible revenue.
Nickel-plated steel rather than silver signals the budget tier of this issue unambiguously.