60th anniversary of the Assembly of the Slovenian Nations Delegates in Kocevje (2003)

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was attacked on 6 April 1941 and the region of present-day Slovenia was subsequently invaded by three occupying forces that divided the territory among them. As early as 26 April of that year, patriotic members of Slovenian political parties of various orientations gathered in Ljubljana to establish the Liberation Front of the Slovenian nation. They were later joined in their effort by other political groups. The leading representatives of all these political factions made up the Liberation Front Supreme Plenum that was active until 3 October 1943 when, at the Assembly of the Slovenian Nation’s Delegates in Kočevje, the 120-member Liberation Front Plenum was elected as the supreme body of the Slovenian Liberation Front. The plenum also functioned as the Slovenian National Liberation Committee, the supreme authority that at the conference in Črnomelj on 19 February 1944 was renamed the Slovenian National Liberation Council and transformed into the Slovenian parliament.

The decisions made by the Assembly of the Slovenian Nation’s Delegates changed the status of Slovenia, which before the war was one of Yugoslavia’s administrative units or banovinas. At the Assembly, it was given the status of a state within a larger federation. With this decision, the Assembly in a small Slovenian town, surrounded on all sides by enemy forces of the Third Reich, laid the foundations of Slovenian statehood. The final goal was at last achieved in 1991 with a successful referendum on Slovenia’s independence and the expressed voice of a nation that always yearned for its own independent state.

With the special issuance of coins commemorating this exceptional event in occupied Europe, the Republic of Slovenia rises above different political perspectives and events from recent history and acknowledges all those who refused to bow to the demand: “Make this country German again!”

The commemorative coins feature stylised elements of the five-pointed star that are arranged around dots and symbolise the path trodden by different groups of delegates as heralds of the Slovenian nation, groups which were formed in 1943 and which set out on the several-day long journey to Kočevje, represented on coins as a large dot.

• Gold coin: nominal value: 25,000 Tolars, purity: 900/1000 gold, weight: 7 grams, diameter: 24 millimetres, quantity: 300 coins
• Silver coin: nominal value: 5,000 Tolars, purity: 925/1000 silver, weight: 15 gram, diameter: 32 millimetres, issue limit: 1,500 coins

Draft design of the gold and silver coins: Blaž Češka, Lukovica, Slovenia
Production and minting: Mincovna Kremnica š. p., Kremnica, Slovakia