(Bloomberg) -- Serbia’s central bank said it would take action if Croatia is allowed to put an image of scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla, an ethnic Serb born in present-day Croatia, on euro coins when it joins the currency union.
While Croatia won’t join the euro zone before 2023, passions over claiming Tesla -- one of many disputes between the Balkan neighbors and wartime foes -- is setting their respective central banks on a collision course.
Croatia’s said its version of the coins would feature national symbols and Tesla, who was born in 1856 to Serb parents in the town of Smiljan, then part of the Austrian Empire that’s now in Croatia. He moved in 1884 to the U.S., where his career flourished.
Using Tesla’s image on Croat euro coins would “represent usurping the cultural and scientific heritage of the Serbian people since it’s beyond doubt that the celebrated scientist in his lifetime declared himself as a Serb,” the That country’s central bank said on its website. It pledged “appropriate action would be undertaken with EU institutions to point out how inappropriate the proposal is.”
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