This issue belongs to the wave of commemorative gold released in the early 2000s by smaller sovereign mints seeking hard currency revenue — Sierra Leone among the most active. The pairing of Diana and Mother Teresa trades on their 1997 deaths occurring within days of each other: Diana on August 31st, Teresa on September 5th. That coincidence drove enormous commemorative output from dozens of issuers across the following five years, with Sierra Leone's Bank licensing several series through third-party distributors rather than producing them for domestic circulation.
This issue belongs to the wave of commemorative gold released in the early 2000s by smaller sovereign mints seeking hard currency revenue — Sierra Leone among the most active. The pairing of Diana and Mother Teresa trades on their 1997 deaths occurring within days of each other: Diana on August 31st, Teresa on September 5th. That coincidence drove enormous commemorative output from dozens of issuers across the following five years, with Sierra Leone's Bank licensing several series through third-party distributors rather than producing them for domestic circulation.