ECU - Strasbourg Albert Schweitzer

The ECU — European Currency Unit — was never legal tender but flourished in the early 1990s as a collectible quasi-currency, with regional French bodies like the Union Numismatique d'Alsace issuing commemorative pieces tied to European unification sentiment ahead of the Maastricht Treaty's implementation. Schweitzer is the obvious Alsatian choice: born in Kaysersberg in 1875, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1952, and a figure the region has claimed fiercely since his death in 1965.

The ECU denomination itself ceased to have any cultural momentum after the euro replaced it at parity on January 1, 1999, rendering these regional issues a precise timestamp of a very specific political optimism.