New US $20 bill with anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman delayed

New US $20 bill with anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman delayed
3 hours ago



The redesign of the $20 bill to include a picture of Harriet Tubman was announced in 2016

A redesign of the $20 bill featuring anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman, due to be unveiled next year, has been postponed until 2028, the US treasury secretary says.

Steven Mnuchin said the focus was on improving the banknote's security features and not changing the imagery.

Tubman's photo was due to replace that of former President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner, on the front of the note.

President Donald Trump has called the redesign "pure political correctness".

Harriett Tubman was born into slavery in the 1820s. After suffering a serious head injury, she escaped and helped to free more than 70 slaves through the "Underground Railroad", a network of anti-slavery activists and safe houses.

Speaking at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, Mr Mnuchin said "the primary reason" for the changes was for "counterfeiting issues", and that the department would focus on the image later.

"Based upon this, the $20 bill will now not come out until 2028. The $10 bill and the $50 bill will come out with new features beforehand," he added, declining to say whether he supported the decision to add Tubman's picture.


A mock-up of the new note


The proposed redesign, announced in 2016 under the Obama administration by then-Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew after months of public debate, would see Jackson's picture going to the back of the bill.

At the time, Mr Lew said Tubman was "not just a historical figure but a role model for leadership and participation in our democracy".

Mr Trump has previously expressed admiration for Andrew Jackson and on the campaign trail in 2016 he suggested that Tubman - whom he described as "fantastic" - would be better-suited for the $2 bill, a note that is not widely circulated, or another note.

The women last depicted on US notes were former first lady Martha Washington, on the $1 silver certificate from 1891 to 1896, and Native American Pocahontas, in a group photo on the $20 bill from 1865 to 1869.

This stamp lets you put Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill in an act of 'civil disobedience'
Joel Shannon, USA TODAY
Published 12:18 p.m. ET May 24, 2019 | Updated 4:01 p.m. ET May 24, 2019

The redesigned $20 bill may not be out for years, but people can put Harriet Tubman on their bills now.
A "Harriet Tubman Stamp" aims to allow Americans to put Tubman's face on $20 bills, despite the Trump administration's announcement this week that the official bill's redesign will be delayed.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said during a congressional hearing Wednesday that a redesign of the $20 bill to feature Tubman – an abolitionist hero – would not be ready in time for a planned 2020 release. Mnuchin cited "counterfeiting issues" as a reason for a delay he projected to last eight years.

The news has brought new attention to a previously released product: An ink stamp that can replace Andrew Jackson's face on a $20 bill with Tubman's likeness. The single-color stamp is designed to place an outline of Tubman's face over the former president's.

In promoting the stamps on social media, the product's Instagram account referred to using the stamp as an act of "civil disobedience."

The product has attracted enough attention that its Etsy listing was sold out as of Friday morning. For those who live in New York City, the product's site says there are two businesses that serve as "stamping stations" in the city.

The stamp's creator – Dano Wall, 33 – has a goal of putting 5,000 stamps into circulation, Wall told the Washington Post. It's been a project in the making since 2017, the Post reports.

“My goal is to get 5,000 stamps out there,” Wall told the newspaper. “If there are 5,000 people consistently stamping currency, we could get a significant percent of circulating $20 bills (with the Tubman) stamp, at which point it would be impossible to ignore.”

https://www.instagram.com/tubmanstamp/?utm_source=ig_embed

tubmanstamp
@tubmanstamp
Minting some fresh Tubmans #civildisobedience #tubmantwenty #harriettubman #tubmanstamp #womenonmoney #RepresentationMatters @tubmanstamp http://tubmanstamp.etsy.com

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The Tubman Stamp's website includes information for those interested in making their own stamps. It also shows video of stamped bills being accepted by automated machines.

Is the Harriet Tubman stamp legal?

The Tubman Stamp website says that using the stamp is legal, citing The Stampede, an effort to stamp bills with messages "to protest big money in politics."

"Though anti-counterfeiting laws prohibit the willful destruction of, and stamping of advertisements upon, paper money, pursuant to I.I.18 U.S.C. § 333 of the United States Code, stamped currency is fit for circulation so long as its denomination remains legible," the stamp's site says.


Guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing addresses the defacement of currency, but does not directly address the stamping of Federal Reserve bills:

Defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Under this provision, currency defacement is generally defined as follows: Whoever mutilates, cuts, disfigures, perforates, unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking association, Federal Reserve Bank, or Federal Reserve System, with intent to render such item(s) unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Contributing: William Cummings, USA TODAY

Videos at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/24/harriet-tubman-20-bill-stamp-puts-tubman-face-twenty/1219952001/

Fuk that stamp.. If and when I ever see a US bill defaced with some gotdam "face", I'll take it straight to the bank and demand a speshul invegerstashun.

louie wrote:

Fuk that stamp.. If and when I ever see a US bill defaced with some gotdam "face", I'll take it straight to the bank and demand a speshul invegerstashun.

Wouldn't putting her face an any currency automatically devalue the currency?

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I got this dollar a year ago at Dairy Queen and got it back the other day at Target. Wtf.

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This came through my work. So simple, so beautiful.