A longstanding cultural tussle between France and Poland over the legacy of pioneering scientist Maria Skłodowska-Curie reignited as the European Central Bank (ECB) considers featuring her on its new €20 note, according to Politico.
Polish officials are intensively lobbying Frankfurt to include her Polish maiden name, Skłodowska, alongside Curie, asserting that omitting it erases a vital part of her identity and Europe’s shared heritage. The physicist and chemist, born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw in 1867, remains the only person awarded Nobel Prizes in two distinct scientific fields and the first woman to receive the honour.
The dispute centres on nomenclature symbolism. After marrying Pierre Curie in 1895, she initially used “Marie Curie,” including for her 1903 Physics Nobel. By 1911, however, when awarded the Chemistry Prize, she adopted “Marie Skłodowska-Curie,” a shift interpreted as both a feminist reclamation and nationalist assertion of her Polish roots.
For Poland, a nation historically partitioned by foreign powers, the ECB’s initial exclusion of “Skłodowska” from its shortlist evoked narratives of cultural marginalisation. Polish diplomats in Brussels formally protested the omission, backed by Central Bank Governor Adam Glapiński’s direct appeal to ECB President Christine Lagarde.
Members of the European Parliament, including non-Poles sympathetic to Curie’s feminist legacy, echoed the demand. Though Poland remains outside the eurozone, the ECB adjusted its online references to “Marie Curie (born Skłodowska),” a move conservative MEP Janusz Lewandowski hailed as recognising her “Polish heritage.”
“I am very pleased that the ECB addressed Polish concerns and adjusted the design of [the] new €20 bank note to reflect Marie Skłodowska-Curie’s Polish heritage,” Lewandowski said.
Complicating matters is Curie’s own inconsistency: she alternated between “Skłodowska-Curie” and the abbreviated “M. Curie” professionally after Pierre’s death. The ECB confirmed it is consulting her descendants and Institut Curie in Paris to determine “the most appropriate way to refer to her” should she feature on the banknote.
However, cultural figures may not ultimately appear on the new series, as motifs like birds and rivers, deemed less divisive, remain under consideration. The ECB’s Governing Council will finalise designs by late 2026, with issuance likely years later.
Poland’s campaign draws strength from precedent. In 2014, it successfully pressured the European Commission to rename its flagship research fellowship from “Marie Curie Actions” to “Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions” (MSCA), cementing her Polish identity within EU institutions.
