A proposed redesign of euro banknotes has reopened a long-running disagreement between France and Poland over how to credit double Nobel Prize winner Maria Skłodowska-Curie.
The European Central Bank (ECB) is weighing two visual themes for its next series of notes — “Rivers and Birds” and “European Culture”. If the latter prevails, a €20 bill now on the drawing board would portray the scientist lecturing in a book-lined hall under the caption “Marie Curie (née Skłodowska)”.
In Poland, that parenthetical reference has proved too small a stage for national pride. Commentators argue the layout sidelines Curie’s Polish identity while other cultural icons, including Miguel de Cervantes and Ludwig van Beethoven, retain their original names in each language version.
The ECB says it is still consulting historians and linguists. “We recognize the complexity and aim to find the most appropriate notation,” a spokesperson said, calling the current wording a draft meant to reflect Curie’s dual legacy.
Born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw in 1867, she later married French physicist Pierre Curie and signed her papers variously as Skłodowska-Curie or simply M. Curie. In 1903 the couple shared the Nobel Prize in physics, and eight years later she became the first person to earn a second Nobel, this time in chemistry.
Final artwork will be chosen by the ECB’s governing council in 2026 after public feedback and jury input. Even if the Skłodowska-Curie motif is approved, several more years of technical preparation lie ahead before the new banknotes enter circulation. Existing notes would remain legal tender during the changeover.
For Poland, the dispute is less about cash than about remembrance — and whether one of its most famous daughters will be seen first as Curie or Skłodowska-Curie.
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Source: Euronews, Money.pl