5 ECU Salvador Dalí

Spain's ECU-denominated commemorative series of the 1990s was issued ahead of euro adoption as a politically motivated gesture toward European integration, though the coins held no legal tender status in daily commerce. Dalí was selected partly because his death in 1989 made the licensing straightforward, and partly because his international profile suited a coin intended as much for export collectors as domestic ones.

The Figueres connection matters here: Dalí spent his final years in the castle at Púbol and died in the Torre Galatea adjacent to his own museum — a deliberate choice to remain physically inseparable from his work.