Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
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WASHINGTON — The work to redesign the $20 bill and affix an image of Harriet Tubman as its centerpiece was well underway before the Trump administration delayed the plans, according to a new report from The New York Times.
Efforts to redesign the bill were advanced enough for officials at the Secret Service and government engravers to review a metal engraving plate and a digital image of the Tubman mockup as recently as May 2018, the report said.
The report cited current and former sources at the Treasury Department, which oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Times also included a preliminary image it obtained from a former Treasury official, completed in late 2016, of what a new $20 bill could look like, featuring Tubman “in a dark coat with a wide collar and a white scarf,” the report said.
A delay in the redesign of the $20 bill was motivated by concerns of a potential backlash from President Donald Trump, according to the report: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin chose a timeline extending beyond Trump’s presidency — even if he won a second term — to avoid the possibility of an explosive controversy, fearing that the president who has disparaged the redesign would cancel the plans altogether.
In a statement to The Washington Post on Friday, Mnuchin said the development of security and anticounterfeiting measures first dictates the redesign process. “In the case of the $20 bill, that timetable is consistent with the previous Administration and has not been changed. As Secretary, my first responsibility is to ensure all security and anti-counterfeiting measures are properly taken in accordance with BEP’s mandates. The suggestion that this process is being stalled is completely erroneous.”
The director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Len Olijar said in a statement that “No Bureau or Department official has ‘scrapped’ anything; It is too early to develop an integrated concept or design until security features are finalized.”