The Department of the Treasury says that they have no immediate plans to put iconic abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, at least not in this administration.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Thursday that Tubman would not appear on the bill before the year 2030, effectively punting the decision to a future Treasury secretary.
During Thursday’s press briefing, Mnuchin said, “This is something that is in the distant future.”
He added, “I’m not going to comment on it because, as I’ve said, it’s not going to be my decision. It’s going to be a Treasury secretary’s decision in the future.”
The idea of Tubman to replace former President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill became realistic during the Obama administration.
While Mnuchin has been accused of delaying the change, two Obama officials told The Washington Post in the summer of 2019 that Mnuchin was not delaying the roll-out of the bills and noted that intricate security features are necessary to protect the currency from counterfeiting.
Mnuchin has been asked about the future of the $20 bill on a number of occasions.
During a press conference in the summer of 2019, he said, “There’s a lot of misinformation on this issue and I’ve received letter being accused of postponing this and everything else.”
He added, “This is a nonpolitical situation where the primary objective of changing the currency is to stop counterfeiting.”
Mnuchin on Tubman $20: "There's a lot of misinformation, OK, on this issue. And I've received letters being accused of postponing this and everything else. Again, this is a non-political situation where the primary objective of changing the currency is to stop counterfeiting." pic.twitter.com/nVNKPGIzz3
— The Hill (@thehill) July 16, 2019
Currency changes in the United States are rare. The decision to put Jackson on the front of the $20 bill was made in 1928, according to The Washington Post. However, the Post notes that the reasoning behind that decision has apparently been lost to history.
Tubman would of course be on the only woman and the only African-American to be on the front of a piece of American currency.
