The faces of Lincoln and Hamilton, which appear on the $5 and $10 bills, would remain in place. Tubman would be the first woman represented on the face of paper currency since First Lady Martha Washington’s portrait appeared on the $1 silver certificate in the late 1800s. The inclusion of Tubman's face on the $20 bill was part of a redesign of all $5, $10 and $20 bills to honor women’s suffrage and civil rights movements announced by the Treasury in 2016.

“We thought about creating a new denomination for Obama, but George Washington has had plenty of time in the sun.' One parody that has been shared repeatedly and mistaken for true states that Obama's face was going to replace George Washington's on the $1 bill: Over the years, rumors spread by email and social media have claimed living former presidents, including Barack Obama, were being considered for inclusion on U.S. States the Treasury Department: 'The law prohibits portraits of living persons from appearing on Government Securities.' Chase-but so, too, is the denomination on which he appears: the out-of-print $10,000 bill.Ĭhase was actually the first person responsible for the design of the nation's paper currency. He was also the father of Kate Chase Sprague, a well-known socialite during Lincoln's presidency who later became embroiled in scandal.įederal law prohibits any living person's face from appearing on currency. The Treasury Department says only that it considers 'persons whose places in history the American people know well.' But the exact criteria for deciding who appears on our paper currency, save for one glaring detail, are unclear. bill is the secretary of the Department of Treasury. The person with the final say over whose faces are on every U.S. I have been particularly struck by the many comments and reactions from children for whom Harriet Tubman is not just a historical figure, but a role model for leadership and participation in our democracy.' 'The decision to put Harriet Tubman on the new $20 was driven by thousands of responses we received from Americans young and old. Lew wrote in announcing the plans in 2016:

The Department of Treasury announced in 2016 it was planning to bump Jackson to the back of the $20 bill and place the face of Harriet Tubman, the late African American activist and formerly enslaved woman, on the front of the currency in 2020 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which acknowledged and guaranteed the right of women to vote. The federal agency responsible for printing the seven denominations, however, was planning to reintroduce a woman to a U.S. The few that still exist are legal to spend but are so rare that they are worth more than their face value to collectors. The Treasury stopped printing the larger notes in 1945, but most continued to circulate until 1969 when the Federal Reserve began destroying those that were received by banks. The faces on larger denominations that are out of circulation-the $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $100,000 bills-are also those of men who served as president and Treasury secretary.

bill in circulation include five American presidents and two founding fathers.

Currency