WASHINGTON -- Coin sets commemorating the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, that are expected to produce about $9 million for the organizing committee, were introduced Thursday at the Yugoslavian Embassy.
The sets of gold and silver coins are issued by the National Bank of Yugoslavia to commemorate the first Olympics held in Yugoslavia and the first Winter Olympics held in a socialist country.
Savo Cecur, president of marketing for the Organizing Committee of the XIV Olympic Winter Games Yugoslavia (YOOC), presented a gold coin to Mrs. Donna Pope, Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Mint, and a three-coin silver set to Mike Eruzione, captain of the U.S. ice hockey team that won the gold medal at Lake Placid, N.Y., in 1980.
The silver coins will be issued in five three-coin series selling for $101. The 100 Dinar coin depicts the ice sports, the 250 Dinar the historical sites and figures of the Olympics and the 500 Dinars the snow sports.
The three 5,000 Dinar gold coins, priced at $246 each, carry the official 1984 Winter Olympic emblem, a picture of former Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito and the Eternal Olympic Flame.
The silver series will be issued this month, April 1, July 1, Nov. 1 and Jan. 1, 1984. Gold series will be issued this month, July 1 and Jan. 1, 1984.
'We expect to attain total worldwide retail sales in the $70 to $90 million range with $20 to $30 million generated by sales in the United States,' said Cecur. 'We expect the program, one of the most important sources of revenue for the staging of the Sarajevo games, to produce about $9 million for the organizing committee.'
The U.S. Olympic Committee will receive between $100,000 and $200,000 from the sale of the Sarajevo coins. Proceeds from the sale of Olympic coin sets are shared among the parti:ipating nations.
The USOC already has received $13 million from the advance sale of the coins commemorating the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, some of which will go to other nations sending teams to the games.
Yugoslavia is the first host country in 60 years to include a gold coin in the Olympic commemorative coin sets. The coins will be available in the U.S. about Feb. 1.
The coins, legal tender in Yugoslavia, will be proof quality with a mirror background and sharp, high relief frosted design detail. The obverse side will carry a common design developed by Nebojsa Mitric, a prominent Yugoslavian medallic sculptor.
