It’s always seemed strange when people referred to cash as “dead presidents,” since not all of our dollar bills even feature U.S. Presidents on them.
Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, important Founding Fathers as they were, never ran for president and received the honor of appearing on U.S. currency on the back of their contributions to the then-fledgling U.S. government’s survival.
So, when the idea came to better reflect the U.S. population by showing more diverse figures on its currency, this emphasis on contributions to the health of America and its democracy was a major consideration for deciding who would appear on any redesigned dollar bills.
However, it seems that change will be taking place later than we thought.
Back in 2016, the then-Secretary of the Treasury Jack Lew announced a redesign of the $20 bill.
According to CNN , he had initially planned to replace Alexander Hamilton’s face on the $10 bill, but this sparked backlash from Hamilton’s fans and likely Hamilton fans.
So instead, the ax fell on former president Andrew Jackson.
By 2016, Jackson didn’t enjoy as much popularity as Hamilton, which likely had to do with his approval of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which led to the forced relocation of 15,000 members of the Cherokee nation and the deaths of 4,000 of them during that journey.
However, when it came to deciding who would replace Jackson, Lew turned to the public for input.
Lew soon received thousands of messages from Americans of all ages in support of Harriet Tubman.
From her work in personally escorting hundreds of slaves to safety as a “conductor” of the Underground Railroad to her presence as an abolitionist and supporter of women’s suffrage, it’s not hard to see why so many Americans would be inspired by her.
And so, it was decided that by 2020, Tubman would begin to appear on the $20 bill.
As CNBC reported , this unveiling was more specifically scheduled for August 18, 2020, as this will be the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
This amendment made the right of women to vote official.
However, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said yesterday that the bill’s redesign will not meet that deadline.
In fact, as he told the House Financial Services Committee, the Harriet Tubman $20 bill may not be unveiled until 2028.
His statements also seemed to indicate that the Trump Administration had ignored Lew’s reasoning for the redesign entirely.
As he told the committee, “The primary reason we have looked at redesigning the currency is for counterfeiting issues.”
He went on to say that the redesign of security features for this purpose will be ready for 2020.
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He didn’t expect any issues of “imagery redesign” such as the decision to put Tubman on the $20 bill to come up until 2026.
When asked by House Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts if Mnuchin had “no intention of executing the redesign as planned by [his] predecessor,” he said that her statement was correct.
Pressley also mentioned that President Trump had previously called the decision to replace Jackson with Tubman “pure political correctness.”
![Image credit: Reddit | [deleted]](https://static.diply.com/lKz7CVqadLz5qtQt8ecj.jpg)
He also suggested that she should go on a two-dollar-bill.
Although Mnuchin did not comment on this and said that he was focused on redesigning security features, he also didn’t offer any alternative explanation for why he had not pursued Lew’s redesign plans.
He also didn’t explain why Tubman would not appear on the $20 bill until well after President Trump would be out of office.
h/t: CNBC