Harriet Tubman’s Family ‘Disappointed’ By Lack Of Action On $20 Bill
The family of Harriet Tubman is reportedly disappointed with the lack of action by the Biden administration on putting her face on the $20 bills.
On April 20, 2016, then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew declared in a letter that for the first time in over a century, a woman’s face would be on the front of U.S. currency: Known abolitionist and activist Harriet Tubman, the former slave who helped transport many of people to freedom along the Underground Railroad.
“Biden has offered to put that into the process and it has not happened,” Galvin said. “The family is really disappointed with it. We don’t know what’s taking the time.” In an announcement to Spectrum News, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Engraving shared that there is “no change to the expected for [the bill’s] 2030 release date.”
“The primary reason currency is redesigned is for security against counterfeiting; the redesigned timeline is driven by security feature development and the sequence for the denominations is driven by current and potential security threats,” the spokesperson said.
“The $50, $20, $5, and $100 notes will follow the $10 for redesign, pending any new developments in counterfeiting threats or technology issues,” the spokesperson said.
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“The $20 note has been the third denomination slated for a redesign since 2013.”
“The currency design process is complex and significant testing is required for the notes to be production-ready,” they continued. “Once production is underway, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, as the issuing authority, will determine the actual issue dates for the redesigned notes.”
But Tubman’s children are fed up with the delay. “Our thought is if, in fact, you can send a man to the moon, and you can do all kinds of things, we should have the technical ability, and the technical expertise to do what needs to be done,” Galvin said.