How About Dead U.S. Presidents?

Europeans will get a chance next summer to vote on their favorite designs for the new European Currency Unit, or ecu, which will become legal tender in several EC states in 1997 or 1999.

The non-binding referendum is the brainchild of Sylvia Bourdon, a Parisian former erotic art dealer. On Sunday, the choices were narrowed to six by a panel of designers who considered nearly 1,000 entries.

Among the finalists: oil paintings by Leonardo da Vinci and Rembrandt, a bust of the Roman emperor Augustus, the Eiffel Tower doubling as a compass needle, and a strip of see-through plastic encasing a filmy green leaf.

Despite its stamp of popular approval, the winning design is likely to be ignored by entrenched central bankers--who say they’ll choose for themselves.