On April 20, 2016, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced that Harriet Tubman will be featured on the front of a redesigned $ 20 note set to debut in 2020. Tubman will be the first Black person and first woman to appear on the front of US paper money. Lew’ s announcement also revealed that Sojourner Truth will appear on the back of a new $ 10 note along with fellow suffragists Lucretia Mott, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul. Additionally, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Marian Anderson and Eleanor Roosevelt will be featured on the back of the redesigned $ 5 note.

Lew’ s announcement launched a national discussion on the role of imagery on currency. The practical role of artistic currency design is counterfeit prevention, but it also carries a deeper meaning. To be featured on currency is among the nation’ s highest honors. Both the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the US Mint embrace the mission to convey American values and principles through currency.

Previous issues of paper money have focused on themes such as industry and freedom, while the next set will be designed around the theme of democracy. The US Mint also considers American coinage to be“ exquisite encapsulations of America’ s ideals” and takes pride in its numismatic designs that are meant to depict American history and culture.

The Treasury’ s latest redesign will acknowledge for the first time on paper money the contributions of Black and women’ s rights activists in advancing American democracy. There is a longer tradition of honoring such leaders through the creation of commemorative coins, medals and medallions.

Positive representation of free Black people on commemorative currency is one of the earliest forms of public recognition of Black excellence, contribution and value. Enshrined in law, commemorative currency represents indelible milestones in the centuries-long struggle of Black people to achieve equality and justice. Commemorative legislation and currency help to accurately document the Black experience in the United States.

The anti-slavery tokens, commemorative coins, concept coins, bronze medals, Presidential bronze medals and gold medallions featured in the Museum’ s new exhibit,“ For the Love of Money: Blacks on US Currency,” celebrate Black icons, seminal historic events and institutions which have shaped Black history and significantly influenced American history. They represent a Black history timeline that spans from the arrival of Africans at Jamestown, VA, and participation of Black Patriots in the Revolutionary War, to over a century of Black historical achievement from Post- Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Era and the election and re-election of the first Black President.

“ For the Love of Money” honors barrier-breaking Black athletes, entertainers, civil rights leaders, military leaders and politicians, and it features the historic contributions of several prominent Black women.

The following images represent a selection of objects from this exhibit, which will be on loan to the Museum of American Finance from the Museum of UnCut Funk through January 2018.

Am I Not a Woman and a Sister 1838 Anti-Slavery Token

Manufacturer: In 1837, the American Anti-Slavery Society commissioned Gibbs, Gardner and Company of Belleville, NJ, to produce anti-slavery tokens.

American copper hard times tokens were privately minted and used by merchants to make change during a recessionary period in the United States. The design of the US anti-slavery hard times token was inspired by British ceramic medallions produced by abolitionist Josiah Wedgwood. These anti-slavery medallions made their way to the United States as a gift from Wedgwood to Benjamin Franklin, then president of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery. This imagery was also used on British anti-slavery tokens.

Most American anti-slavery tokens differed from their British counterparts in featuring a chained African female slave. Female imagery may have been selected due to the involvement of women in the abolitionist movement and the similarities to their fight for women’ s rights.

20 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2017 | www. MoAF. org