ECU Selma Lagerlöf

Selma Lagerlöf, honored here as part of the European Currency Unit commemorative program Sweden participated in during the 1990s, was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1909. The ECU series was a pan-European collector initiative tied to the precursor unit to the euro, issued by member and associate states in the years before monetary union made the concept obsolete.

Gold-plated copper-nickel tells the whole story of this issue's intent: a collector piece, never meant for exchange, produced at a price point accessible to a broad audience.