Anti-slavery activist Harriet Tubman won’t appear on US currency for nearly a decade, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sai⭕d Wednesday.
An image of Tubman, a former slave who helped others escape to freedom through the Underground Railroad, was supposed to replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill next year.
“The primary reason we’ve looked at redesigning the $20 bill is for counterfeiting issues,” Mnuchin said in front of Congress on Wednesday.
“Based upon this, the new $20 bill will now not come out until 2028,” he added.
President Trump criticized the plan to replace Jackson on the note during the 2016 presi🌱dential campaign.
Trump called the plan “pure political correctness” and suggested Tubman appear on $2 bills, which are no longer printed.
Tubman was picked as the replacement in a survey conducted by the Treasury Department during Barack Obama’🌱s presidency.
She would have been the f♓irst black woman to appear on US currency.
In his testimony Wednesday, Mnu✃chin said the postponement was not political, but a security decision.
“The ultimate issue of the redesign will most likely be another secretary’s down the road,” he said.
With Wires