2 Euros Dante Alighieri

Italy has issued commemorative 2 euro coins honoring Dante multiple times, but this 2015 piece marks the 750th anniversary of his birth — a figure calculated from the scholarly consensus placing his birth in 1265, though no documentary proof of the exact date exists. Dante himself referenced his birth year obliquely in the Commedia, and the anniversary gave the Italian Republic a politically uncomplicated cultural figure to celebrate at a moment when domestic politics offered few of those.