2500 Tolarjev 35th Chess Olympiad

The 2002 Chess Olympiad was held in Bled, Slovenia — the same lakeside resort town that hosted a celebrated international tournament in 1931 won by Alexander Alekhine. Bled's association with top-level chess spans seven decades, making it an unusually deliberate choice rather than mere national convenience.

Slovenia had been issuing commemorative tolarjev series since independence in 1991, with the Čop reference system cataloging them systematically. The .02 suffix on Čop#625 indicates a variant within the issue — most likely the proof striking.