5 Euros Antonio Meucci

Issued to commemorate the centenary of Meucci's death, this coin arrived three years after the U.S. Congress passed House Resolution 269 in 2002, formally recognizing Meucci's role in developing the telephone ahead of Alexander Graham Bell's 1876 patent. The Italian government had long championed that cause, and this commemorative was part of a broader cultural effort to cement that recognition in public memory.

Meucci filed a caveat — not a full patent — with the U.S. Patent Office in 1871, which lapsed in 1874 when he could not afford the $10 renewal fee.