ECU Uffizi Gallery

The ECU — European Currency Unit — was never legal tender in any conventional sense; it existed as a basket currency used for accounting within the European Monetary System from 1979 onward. By 1998, the ECU had less than a year left before being absorbed into the euro at a fixed 1:1 rate, which makes that year's issues something of a deliberate farewell from participating nations. Italy produced several collector pieces in this final window, often tied to cultural institutions as a way of leveraging the format for prestige rather than commerce.