500 Afghanis XV World Cup USA 1994

Afghanistan issued this piece in 1991 — three years before the tournament it commemorates — during a period of acute governmental instability following the Soviet withdrawal. The Najibullah regime, already losing territory to Mujahideen factions, was licensing its sovereign minting authority to foreign coin producers as a revenue mechanism. The actual striking almost certainly took place in a European mint, almost certainly without meaningful oversight from Kabul.