75th anniversary of Ernst Abbe's death, 20 Mark coin 1980, GDR

On the 75th anniversary of the death of the scientist Ernst Abbe , a 20 Mark commemorative coin was issued in 1980. The face of the coin shows a head portrait of the physicist. The coin was minted from 500 silver

Ernst Karl Abbe (1840-1905) was not only a physicist, optician and statistician, he was also an entrepreneur.

Together with Carl Zeiss and Otto Schott, he laid the foundations for modern optics. Ernst Karl Abbe developed various optical instruments and helped the Carl Zeiss company to become world famous.