BRUSSELS — The age-old combat between Poland and France over the legacy of Marie Curie (née Skłodowska) has a brand new entrance: the €20 banknote.
Polish officers have pushed the European Central Financial institution to incorporate the pioneering scientist’s maiden title within the occasion of her that includes in a brand new sequence of euro banknotes, based on two folks aware of the matter.
Curie, who received two Nobel Prizes within the twentieth century for her discoveries unlocking the secrets and techniques of radiation, is among the many symbols of “European tradition” whom the ECB could characteristic on its subsequent sequence of banknotes. The ECB’s Governing Council is anticipated to resolve on the ultimate design by the tip of 2026, however the notes received’t be issued for some years after that.
The primary girl to win a Nobel Prize, and nonetheless the one individual to win Nobels in two separate scientific fields, Skłodowska-Curie was picked to adorn the €20 be aware. There was just one challenge: The Poles insisted the central bankers had omitted an important a part of her title from the shortlist.
Curie took a French surname from her husband Pierre in 1895, however was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw. When she received her first Nobel Prize in 1903 for physics, collectively together with her husband Pierre, she was credited merely as Marie Curie. When she claimed her second in 1911, for chemistry, 5 years after Pierre’s loss of life, she opted for a double-barrel: Marie Skłodowska-Curie. The reclamation of her maiden title was seen as conveying a message that was directly feminist and nationalist.
Its omission when the ECB revealed its shortlist of themes and motifs earlier this yr touched a nerve in Poland, a rustic which has a number of points with being airbrushed out of the European story by its neighbors to the west, having been faraway from the map 3 times within the final three centuries.
Polish diplomats in Brussels warned the ECB it was inaccurate, based on two folks aware of the matter. Polish Central Financial institution Governor Adam Glapiński additionally weighed in with a letter to ECB President Christine Lagarde. Polish MEPs — and even a number of non-Poles sympathetic to Curie’s feminism — additionally wrote in to protest.
The Nationwide Financial institution of Poland didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Although Poland has its personal foreign money and doesn’t use the euro, Frankfurt has now made amends, updating the entry on its webpage to “Marie Curie (born Skłodowska).”
Some have been fast to assert victory.
“I’m more than happy that the ECB addressed Polish considerations and adjusted the design of [the] new €20 financial institution be aware to replicate Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s Polish heritage,” exulted conservative MEP Janusz Lewandowski, talking to POLITICO.
However the actuality is considerably extra advanced. For one factor, even the nice girl herself had bother making up her thoughts, signing herself as Skłodowska-Curie for a lot of her married life, however more and more utilizing the simplified “M. Curie” after Pierre’s loss of life, particularly in skilled contexts.
Furthermore, European cultural figures could not even characteristic on the banknotes if a rival design, that includes far much less divisive motifs of birds and rivers, edge them out. Extra to the purpose, the ECB hasn’t formally settled on utilizing Curie’s double-barreled title, and is talking to her descendants, and the Institut Curie in Paris, to work out what’s for the most effective.
“The ECB is consulting varied sources to find out probably the most acceptable strategy to check with her. If European tradition is chosen because the theme for the longer term design, a call might be taken on how the names of all the chosen personalities might be displayed on the banknotes,” an ECB spokesperson stated. “In the meanwhile, we are going to check with her as Marie Curie (born Skłodowska) so as to acknowledge her twin id.”
But when historical past is any choose, Warsaw will get its approach.
The same Polish rearguard motion introduced in regards to the rebranding of the European Fee’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions program in 2014, ensuing — because the title implies — in a decisive Polish victory.
CORRECTION: The preliminary model of this text misstated when the subsequent sequence of notes might be issued.