20 Euros Ettore Bugatti

This issue is one of several in Monnaie de Paris's long-running "Grandes Heures de l'Automobile" series. Bugatti founded his Alsatian factory in Molsheim in 1909 — exactly a century before this coin's release — having previously worked for De Dietrich and Mathis in the same region. The centenary timing was deliberate.

Ettore himself held over 400 patents during his lifetime, approaching engineering problems more as an artist than a mechanic — a disposition inherited partly from his father Carlo, a furniture and jewelry designer.