GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — In 2016, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, under President Obama, announced that the seventh U.S. President Andrew Jackson would be replaced by escaped slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.
The design was supposed to roll out in 2020 on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote.
During a congressional hearing Wednesday, Mnuchin told the committee, “It's a decision for the Treasury secretary, and right now my decision is to focus on security features.”
Mnuchin said the design of the Tubman bill would be pushed back until at least 2026 and put into circulation no sooner than 2028.
For now, plans to enhance anti-counterfeiting measures for the $10 and $50 bills is the target for next year.
In 2016, as a presidential candidate, Trump told NBC’s Today Show that he doesn’t support taking people off of bills.
When asked about the decision to put Tubman on the $20, Trump said, “I think it's pure political correctness.”
This extends a long period without women on U.S. paper bills.
"Women have appeared a lot on U.S. and world coins and paper money, but more often than not as allegorical figures," said Douglas Mudd, curator and museum director at the American Numismatic Association.
Before the civil war, women typically appeared as Lady Liberty, Lady Justice, or the fictional goddess Columbia.
In a Confederate bill issued in the 1960s, Lady Liberty sits to the right of slaves picking cotton.
This changed in 1865, when Pocahontas was the first nameable, real woman printed on the 20 dollar bill.
Martha Washington also appears on silver certificates in the 19th Century.
“As far as I can tell, that's it for named individuals on federal notes,” said Mudd.
Since the streamlining of American currency following World War 1, women have only appeared on coins, such as Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea and Hellen Keller.