It’s been two years since President Biden’s presidency began and Janet Yellen was nominated and confirmed Treasury Secretary. But we’re still seeing Steve Mnuchin’s signature on the dollar bills.
You know, Mnuchin, the former Hollywood movie producer chosen by classified documents salesman Donald Trump to be his Treasury Secretary during those awful years of the Trump maladministration. Mnuchin’s signature is almost as grating as Trump’s, in my opinion. Why hasn’t Yellen’s signature replaced Mnuchi’s on the new dollar bills yet? What gives?
We’ll have to wait a couple more weeks. Secretary Yellen explained it to late night comedian Stephen Colbert last night. Alicia Wallace for CNN:
Minneapolis CNN Business —
Sheets of dollar bills rolling off the presses at the Fort Worth Bureau of Engraving and Printing will soon bear the signature of US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
But as it turns out, there was a lot riding on that little John Hancock, Yellen said Wednesday night as a guest on CBS’ “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
“I knew this was something you could really screw up, and I wanted to get it right,” she told Colbert. “And I practiced, and I practiced.”
In her first time as a guest on the late-night talk show, Yellen chatted inflation, economic uncertainty and the chicken scratch of the Treasury Secretaries who came before her.
“Two of my predecessors, President Obama’s Treasury Secretaries Tim Geithner and Jack Lew signed the currency, and their signatures were so illegible that people made fun of them,” she said, noting how Lew’s signatures looked like eight circles that were connected.
But, as Yellen explained, the new money couldn’t bear her signature to the right of the portrait (e.g., Washington, Jefferson, etc.) until there’s a Treasurer of the United States to sign to the left of the portrait.
And despite Yellen being in her role since January 2021, it’s taken until now because of the delayed appointment of a new treasurer. In June, President Joe Biden appointed Marilynn Malerba to the post of treasurer.
Their signatures will carry some added significance: It’s the first time in history that two women’s signatures will appear on US bills.
Yellen’s traveling to Fort Worth next week. We’ll continue to see bills signed by Mnuchin for years to come, but as those wear out, we’ll be seeing them less and less.