Anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman will soon replace Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill.
Harriet Tubman to Take Over the $20
The U.S. Treasury Department plans a number of revisions to currency used to represent America at home and abroad. Over the next half-decade, the department will roll out a new $5 that continues to depict Abraham Lincoln on the front, but will include depictions of the Lincoln Memorial on the back that reference Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech.
In what’s being called the biggest makeover of U.S. currency since the “dead presidents” concept was introduced in 1928, Jackson will move to the back of the $20 and be incorporated into a White House depiction there, while abolitionist Harriet Tubman’s image will appear on the front, marking the first time an African-American appears on U.S. paper currency and the first woman represented in more than a century, according to the Treasury Department’s announcement Wednesday.
During the next four years, the $5, $10 and $20 will all be redesigned – the $10 will feature women associated with the suffrage movement like SoJourner Truth and Susan B. Anthony – and will be put into production intermittently thereafter. The redesign is part of an effort to thwart evermore skilled counterfeit attempts.
Last modified: October 16, 2017
