Schumer asks Treasury Dept's inspector general to look for political reasons in Tubman $20 delay

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has asked for the Treasury Department’s inspector general to look into whether purely political reasons are why the unveiling of the basic design of a new $20 bill with a portrait of abolitionist Harriet Tubman on it is being delayed from next year until at least 2026 and not put into circulation until 2030 or thereabouts.

Assuming, of course, that the slave-freeing icon is ever depicted on the bill that has, since 1928, sported an image of Andrew Jackson on its front. That’s the genocidal slavocrat who is often called the “people’s president” for his populist views and policies. Donald Trump has hung a portrait of Jackson, one of his favorites, in the Oval Office. 

As noted here last week, Mnuchin told Congress in May that “technical” reasons meant the unveiling of the Tubman $20 would be delayed, adding that she might not be on a new $20 at all.

The original timetable was set during the Obama administration for 2020 because that is the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women nationwide the right to vote. Tubman would be only the third woman to appear on U.S. currency, the first in about 120 years. Pocahontas, the Powhatan woman known to her own people as Matoaka, appeared on the reverse of a $20 in the 1860s, and Martha Washington appeared on the front of a $1 bill from 1886 until about 1900. The decision was made under Obama to engrave Tubman’s visage on the front of the $20 and put a smaller version of the Jackson portrait on the back. 

Mnuchin claimed to Congress that the six-year delay in the unveiling of the design concept of the Tubman $20 is needed so that new anti-counterfeiting security features can be added to the bill. But The New York Times reported last week that it had obtained a copy of a design for the bill that had been completed in late 2016 when Barack Obama was still president. Alan Rappeport reported:

A current employee of the bureau, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter, personally viewed a metal engraving plate and a digital image of a Tubman $20 bill while it was being reviewed by engravers and Secret Service officials as recently as May 2018. This person said that the design appeared to be far along in the process.

However, in a June 14 statement, Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Leonard Olijar said:

“The illustration published by the New York Times was a copy of an old Series note with the signatures of former officials, with a different image super-imposed on it.  It is not a new $20 note, as incorrectly stated by the New York Times, in any way, shape or form. The facsimile contained no security features or offset printing included on currency notes. There is nothing about that illustration that even begins to meet technical requirements for the next family of notes.”

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2WWTgVc