As the vice president of the Austin Astronomical Society, I get to invite speakers. With Covid and Zoom, we stopped handing over certificates of thanks and taking them out to dinner after the meeting. I suggested gifts that could be easily mailed. I bought a bunch of these from David Leong. I also have 40 Iraqi 250 dinar with an astrolabe and 40 Romanian eclipses. I am still looking for others - Ambartsumian, Copernicus, Galileo, et alia, but this was what he had. Each speaker will get an array of several somethings along with a card of thanks.
That is an excellent idea on your part @kaparthy. Here are some obsolete foreign banknotes depicting those you mentioned above. Galileo https://en.numista.com/catalogue/note204028.html Copernicus https://en.numista.com/catalogue/note211285.html
Thanks for the nod, Bradley. Yes, I have some of my own. And others. Thanks, also, for the link to numista. Like with Marie Curie, she is on a Polish note and French note. Niels Bohr and Erwin Schroedinger are kind of expensive if you are not actively collecting the series. (I am not a collector. I write.)
I have this older Swiss 10 franc note depicting Leonhard Euler (though he's best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, he also did some astronomical work, including improved calculations of comet orbits): Not sure how readily available these are in bulk, I have just the one example.
Yes, I was also looking for the German Gauss notes. The problem with successful, stable nations is that their money is so expensive. Here, 10 SFR would be about 10 USD and uncirculateds would cost about twice that. It's OK if you are pursuing and collecting, but to buy 10 at once for gifts would be prohibitive. Still, it is a nice note, a good commemorative, thanks for sharing.
