5 Dollars (Smithsonian Institution 150th Anniversary)

The 1996 Smithsonian $5 Gold — a museum's founder, struck in gold

In 1829 a British scientist named James Smithson died in Genoa and left his entire fortune to a country he had never visited — "to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge." A century and a half later, the U.S. Mint put his portrait on a half-ounce of gold.