10 Euro Thales of Miletus

Thales is credited with the first recorded prediction of a solar eclipse — 585 BC, visible over Anatolia — an event that reportedly halted a battle between the Lydians and the Medes. Whether his method involved Babylonian astronomical records or genuine geometric reasoning remains disputed, but the prediction itself is attested by Herodotus. Greece has issued a number of coins in its "Great Ancient Greeks" and related commemorative programs, and Thales fits squarely into that recurring framework.