WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 If you imagine just reaching into your wallet 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:05.459 or your pocket right now and pulling out a $20 00:00:05.459 --> 00:00:08.119 bill. Yeah, the classic Andrew Jackson. Exactly. 00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:11.199 You are holding a piece of fabric that is literally 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:15.080 engineered to outsmart computer software, survive 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:18.480 a trip through a washing machine, and ironically, 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:22.800 celebrate a man who absolutely despised the very 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:25.620 concept of paper money. It really is kind of 00:00:25.620 --> 00:00:28.399 a master class in how something so ubiquitous 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:31.039 can be so completely misunderstood. I mean, we 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:32.960 interact with it almost every single day. We 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:34.659 just look at it and see purchasing power. Right. 00:00:34.659 --> 00:00:37.259 It's just lunch money. Yeah. But you are actually 00:00:37.259 --> 00:00:40.780 holding this highly contested miniature museum. 00:00:40.899 --> 00:00:43.240 And that is exactly our mission for today's Deep 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:45.820 Dive. We're taking a single comprehensive look 00:00:45.820 --> 00:00:48.380 at the United States $20 bill. We're going to 00:00:48.380 --> 00:00:51.109 unpack the history the economics, and the human 00:00:51.109 --> 00:00:53.810 contradictions woven directly into this everyday 00:00:53.810 --> 00:00:56.630 object. So, okay, let's unpack this. Let's do 00:00:56.630 --> 00:00:58.630 it. Before we even look at the faces printed 00:00:58.630 --> 00:01:01.210 on the front, we really got to talk about what 00:01:01.210 --> 00:01:04.310 this thing actually is. Because, well, the biggest 00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:06.430 misconception about paper money is right there 00:01:06.430 --> 00:01:09.269 in the name. It isn't paper. Right. What's fascinating 00:01:09.269 --> 00:01:12.030 here is the materiality. It is essentially a 00:01:12.030 --> 00:01:16.049 textile. The composition is actually 75 % cotton 00:01:16.049 --> 00:01:20.780 and 25 % linen. Wow. Yeah, and it weighs exactly 00:01:20.780 --> 00:01:26.939 1 gram, cut to precisely 156 by 66 .3 millimeters. 00:01:27.700 --> 00:01:30.359 And when the Federal Reserve banks process these 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:32.959 and ship them out into the economy, they bundle 00:01:32.959 --> 00:01:35.500 them together in very specific violet straps. 00:01:35.719 --> 00:01:37.099 Wait, I'm stuck on something right out of the 00:01:37.099 --> 00:01:40.159 gate here. If they needed to print money, why 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:42.079 use cotton linen? I mean, those are materials 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:44.780 you use to make a dress shirt or like a pair 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:47.400 of jeans, right? Not a financial document. It's 00:01:47.400 --> 00:01:49.099 a great question Why not use a thick parchment 00:01:49.099 --> 00:01:51.040 or something more traditional? Was it just you 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:53.280 know what they had lying around? No, not at all 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:55.920 It comes down to the brutal physical reality 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:58.500 of how money actually moves You have to think 00:01:58.500 --> 00:02:00.900 about the velocity of currency in a modern economy 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:04.099 The 20 is basically the absolute workhorse of 00:02:04.099 --> 00:02:06.859 the American financial system. It is constantly 00:02:06.859 --> 00:02:11.000 moving from sweaty hands to cash registers. It's 00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:13.539 being folded up into wallets, shoved into ATMs, 00:02:13.719 --> 00:02:15.860 crumpled up, and, you know, occasionally washed 00:02:15.860 --> 00:02:17.840 by accident. Left in the pocket of those jeans 00:02:17.840 --> 00:02:20.319 we just talked about. Exactly. Which means, I 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:22.810 guess... standard wood pulp paper would just 00:02:22.810 --> 00:02:25.689 disintegrate in a matter of weeks. Precisely. 00:02:25.930 --> 00:02:28.250 Wood fibers break down incredibly quickly under 00:02:28.250 --> 00:02:31.210 friction and moisture, but a cotton -linen blend 00:02:31.210 --> 00:02:35.069 gives the bill structural integrity. The fibers 00:02:35.069 --> 00:02:37.330 flex rather than snap when you fold them. Oh, 00:02:37.330 --> 00:02:39.689 that makes sense. But even with that highly durable 00:02:39.689 --> 00:02:43.289 fabric, the average lifespan of a $20 note in 00:02:43.289 --> 00:02:46.770 circulation is still incredibly short. Really? 00:02:46.909 --> 00:02:50.330 How short? It only lasts about 7 .8 years before 00:02:50.330 --> 00:02:52.569 it is just so degraded by wear and tear that 00:02:52.569 --> 00:02:54.569 it has to be pulled from circulation and destroyed. 00:02:55.070 --> 00:02:59.009 7 .8 years, just for a single gram of cotton 00:02:59.009 --> 00:03:01.930 to travel around the country. It really is less 00:03:01.930 --> 00:03:04.169 like a piece of stationery and more like a very 00:03:04.169 --> 00:03:06.889 thin, highly circulated pair of jeans. It's a 00:03:06.889 --> 00:03:09.629 tough little survivor. But the physical durability 00:03:09.629 --> 00:03:12.129 is just the prologue to the real drama here. 00:03:12.129 --> 00:03:14.889 Oh, absolutely. Because the physical bill may 00:03:14.889 --> 00:03:16.830 only live for about eight years, but the face 00:03:16.830 --> 00:03:18.909 on the front of it has been locked in place since 00:03:18.909 --> 00:03:23.460 1928. And it belongs to Andrew Jackson, the seventh 00:03:23.460 --> 00:03:26.699 president of the United States. And here's where 00:03:26.699 --> 00:03:30.080 it gets really interesting. has to be the most 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:32.340 contradictory design choice in the history of 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:34.699 American governance. It is a profound historical 00:03:34.699 --> 00:03:38.039 irony. I mean, Jackson vehemently hated the very 00:03:38.039 --> 00:03:39.979 concept of paper money. Okay, wait, break the 00:03:39.979 --> 00:03:42.060 mechanics of that down for me. Why did he hate 00:03:42.060 --> 00:03:44.180 it and what did he actually do about it during 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:47.099 his presidency? Well, Jackson believed that gold 00:03:47.099 --> 00:03:49.939 and silver coin specie, as it was called, was 00:03:49.939 --> 00:03:53.500 the only legitimate reliable form of money. He 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:57.180 deeply distrusted banks that issued paper notes. 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:59.520 Just on principle. in principle and from personal 00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:02.900 experience. And he especially hated the central 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:04.900 bank of his era, which was the second bank of 00:04:04.900 --> 00:04:07.199 the United States. So during his presidency, 00:04:07.439 --> 00:04:09.659 the president of that national bank, a guy named 00:04:09.659 --> 00:04:12.900 Nicholas Biddle, requested a renewal of the bank's 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:15.840 charter. And he did this in an election year, 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:19.019 effectively daring Jackson to intervene. Oh, 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:23.370 wow. And Jackson, uh. did not back down, I assume. 00:04:23.610 --> 00:04:25.629 Not even a little bit. He took it as a personal 00:04:25.629 --> 00:04:30.050 insult. Jackson responded by making it the administration's 00:04:30.050 --> 00:04:32.629 primary goal to completely destroy the national 00:04:32.629 --> 00:04:35.629 bank. Just scorch the earth. Literally. He pulled 00:04:35.629 --> 00:04:37.810 federal funds out of it, essentially breaking 00:04:37.810 --> 00:04:40.069 Biddle and dismantling the central banking system 00:04:40.069 --> 00:04:42.500 altogether. But destroying the central bank didn't 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:44.860 just make a political point, right? I mean, it 00:04:44.860 --> 00:04:47.839 had massive real -world economic mechanics behind 00:04:47.839 --> 00:04:50.720 it. Huge consequences. Because when you remove 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:53.399 the central bank, you remove the oversight on 00:04:53.399 --> 00:04:55.379 local and state banks. Oh, I see where this is 00:04:55.379 --> 00:04:57.540 going. Yeah. Those smaller banks started printing 00:04:57.540 --> 00:05:00.000 their own paper money recklessly and lending 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.100 it out. which fueled this massive real estate 00:05:03.100 --> 00:05:06.660 speculation bubble in the mid 1830s. And bubbles 00:05:06.660 --> 00:05:09.680 always pop. Always. When that bubble eventually 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:13.019 collapsed, it triggered the panic of 1837. So 00:05:13.019 --> 00:05:15.730 his war on paper money. directly contributed 00:05:15.730 --> 00:05:18.589 to a deep economic depression. It did. And you 00:05:18.589 --> 00:05:21.029 know, the historical context of Jackson's era 00:05:21.029 --> 00:05:24.029 makes this even darker. How so? Well, during 00:05:24.029 --> 00:05:26.389 Jackson's time as a merchant and a land speculator 00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:28.990 on the southwestern frontier, reliable money 00:05:28.990 --> 00:05:32.490 was incredibly scarce. Barter was just the norm. 00:05:32.769 --> 00:05:35.990 And the reality of that barter economy was... 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:39.980 frankly horrifying because reading the sources, 00:05:40.459 --> 00:05:42.860 merchants and speculators in that era frequently 00:05:42.860 --> 00:05:45.180 dealt in enslaved people because they lacked 00:05:45.180 --> 00:05:48.240 a common coin. Yes, a horrific reality of that 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:50.920 time. Enslaved human beings were treated as embodied 00:05:50.920 --> 00:05:53.600 wealth and used almost as a form of currency. 00:05:53.800 --> 00:05:55.839 They were considered the primary security and 00:05:55.839 --> 00:05:58.379 a major part of agricultural property in Jackson's 00:05:58.379 --> 00:06:00.660 world. Exactly. So let me just get this straight. 00:06:00.860 --> 00:06:03.279 You have a man whose economic environment was 00:06:03.279 --> 00:06:05.959 defined by barter and a horrific commodification 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:08.399 of human beings. If he becomes president, which 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:10.699 is a literal war against the central bank and 00:06:10.699 --> 00:06:13.120 triggers an economic depression because of his 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:15.300 deep -seated hatred of paper money. That is the 00:06:15.300 --> 00:06:18.040 summary, yeah. I have to push you on this. Knowing 00:06:18.040 --> 00:06:20.680 all of that, why would the Treasury decide to 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:23.959 make him the permanent face of the $20 bill in 00:06:23.959 --> 00:06:28.040 1928? It's like putting a staunch anti -technology 00:06:28.040 --> 00:06:31.160 crusader on the logo of a new smartphone. That 00:06:31.160 --> 00:06:33.300 is the ultimate question. And his presence was 00:06:33.300 --> 00:06:35.339 controversial from the moment the bills hit the 00:06:35.339 --> 00:06:38.660 streets. But the official stance from the Treasury 00:06:38.660 --> 00:06:42.329 has always been aggressively mundane. Mundane. 00:06:42.430 --> 00:06:45.250 How? Well, when the press demanded answers, Treasury 00:06:45.250 --> 00:06:48.290 officials flatly denied any political motivation. 00:06:49.009 --> 00:06:52.110 In a New York Times article from June 1929, the 00:06:52.110 --> 00:06:54.230 Treasury stoutly maintained that the men chosen 00:06:54.230 --> 00:06:56.430 for these notes were placed there simply because 00:06:56.430 --> 00:06:58.750 their faces were the most familiar to the majority 00:06:58.750 --> 00:07:00.550 of people. I'm sorry, familiarity. That feels 00:07:00.550 --> 00:07:03.209 like a massive cop out. Putting a staunch anti 00:07:03.209 --> 00:07:05.470 -banking crusader on the logo of your currency 00:07:05.470 --> 00:07:07.970 just because people recognize him? Many people 00:07:07.970 --> 00:07:11.110 felt the exact same way. And it is highly conspicuous 00:07:11.110 --> 00:07:14.149 that the 1928 redesign just happened to coincide 00:07:14.149 --> 00:07:16.529 with the 100th anniversary of Jackson's election 00:07:16.529 --> 00:07:18.990 as president. Ah, there it is. But if you look 00:07:18.990 --> 00:07:22.290 at modern inquiries by the US Treasury into their 00:07:22.290 --> 00:07:25.129 own archives, their records simply don't reveal 00:07:25.129 --> 00:07:28.689 any specific rationale. There is no smoking gun 00:07:28.689 --> 00:07:31.470 memo that says, let's put the bank hater on the 00:07:31.470 --> 00:07:34.910 bank note to celebrate his centennial. It is 00:07:34.910 --> 00:07:39.800 just this enduring physical piece of irony. But 00:07:39.800 --> 00:07:41.980 knowing that Jackson only arrived on the bill 00:07:41.980 --> 00:07:44.980 in 1928 makes me wonder what this fabric looked 00:07:44.980 --> 00:07:48.540 like before him. Because prior to 1928, the currency 00:07:48.540 --> 00:07:51.600 wasn't just a static portrait. It was basically 00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.600 a completely different country. Oh, absolutely. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:55.379 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:57.680 early American currency wasn't just a medium 00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:00.519 of exchange. It was a vital canvas for nation 00:08:00.519 --> 00:08:02.800 building. Nation building through cash. Exactly. 00:08:03.079 --> 00:08:04.899 The government was trying to project American 00:08:04.899 --> 00:08:08.040 identity, shared history and modern values to 00:08:08.040 --> 00:08:10.379 a rapidly growing, diverse population that was 00:08:10.379 --> 00:08:12.279 just spreading out across this massive continent. 00:08:12.399 --> 00:08:14.740 And the artwork they chose to project that identity 00:08:14.740 --> 00:08:17.560 was incredibly varied. Like in 1861, you had 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:19.740 a demand note featuring the goddess of liberty 00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:23.639 holding a sword and shield. Yeah. In 1865, a 00:08:23.639 --> 00:08:26.160 national banknote featured an engraving of the 00:08:26.160 --> 00:08:29.139 Battle of Lexington and, amazingly, Pocahontas' 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:32.139 marriage to John Rolfe. It's wild. You also see 00:08:32.139 --> 00:08:35.080 a parade of actual historical figures before 00:08:35.080 --> 00:08:37.960 the denominations became standardized. Alexander 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:41.139 Hamilton was on the $20 bill in 1869 and again 00:08:41.139 --> 00:08:45.500 in 1880. James Garfield appeared in 1882. George 00:08:45.500 --> 00:08:47.639 Washington was actually on a gold certificate 00:08:47.639 --> 00:08:51.580 20 in 1905. Right. But my favorite design... 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:56.600 by far is from 1914. It's a Federal Reserve note 00:08:56.600 --> 00:08:59.360 with Grover Cleveland on the front, but the back 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:01.779 is what's really amazing. There's no White House. 00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.120 Instead, it features an engraving of a steam 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:08.129 locomotive, An automobile and a steamship. Which 00:09:08.129 --> 00:09:10.070 tells you exactly what the government wanted 00:09:10.070 --> 00:09:12.289 the public to value at that moment. Progress. 00:09:12.549 --> 00:09:15.370 Yes. Those large -sized notes were communicating 00:09:15.370 --> 00:09:18.389 the rapid technological progress and industrialization 00:09:18.389 --> 00:09:20.690 of the country. They were literally putting the 00:09:20.690 --> 00:09:22.950 engines of the economy on the currency to build 00:09:22.950 --> 00:09:25.690 public confidence in the money itself. You weren't 00:09:25.690 --> 00:09:27.289 just holding a dollar amount, you were basically 00:09:27.289 --> 00:09:31.320 holding the future. Exactly. But then... 1928 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:33.919 rules around. The treasury shrinks the physical 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:36.200 dimensions of the bill to the small size we use 00:09:36.200 --> 00:09:38.820 today. They slap Andrew Jackson on the front, 00:09:39.100 --> 00:09:41.179 put the White House on the back, and the face 00:09:41.179 --> 00:09:43.139 of the bill basically locks into place for the 00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:46.399 next century. The face locked, yes. But the physical 00:09:46.399 --> 00:09:49.019 object had to constantly evolve. The history 00:09:49.019 --> 00:09:52.100 of the $20 bill after 1928 is really the history 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:54.519 of the United States reacting to external threats, 00:09:55.000 --> 00:09:57.860 first from global wars and eventually from modern 00:09:57.860 --> 00:10:00.429 technology. Oh, I want to look at a specific 00:10:00.429 --> 00:10:02.549 wartime threat, because this is fascinating. 00:10:02.669 --> 00:10:07.230 Jump to 1942. Okay. The U .S. is deeply entrenched 00:10:07.230 --> 00:10:10.240 in World War II. And the Treasury issues a special 00:10:10.240 --> 00:10:12.899 emergency series of the 20 for the Hawaiian Islands. 00:10:13.340 --> 00:10:16.220 They call it the Hawaii Overprint. Yeah, the 00:10:16.220 --> 00:10:18.539 visual changes on that one were stark. They printed 00:10:18.539 --> 00:10:21.580 the word Hawaii in bold letters across both the 00:10:21.580 --> 00:10:23.220 front and the back of the bill, and they used 00:10:23.220 --> 00:10:25.600 brown ink for the serial numbers instead of the 00:10:25.600 --> 00:10:27.720 standard green. Walk me through the mechanism 00:10:27.720 --> 00:10:29.940 of that. Why go through the trouble of printing 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.179 a geographically specific bill in the middle 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:34.899 of a war? It was essentially an economic kill 00:10:34.899 --> 00:10:38.330 switch. The U .S. military had a genuine, terrifying 00:10:38.330 --> 00:10:41.509 concern that the Japanese military might successfully 00:10:41.509 --> 00:10:45.029 invade Hawaii and seize the massive physical 00:10:45.029 --> 00:10:47.549 cash reserves held on the islands. Right, which 00:10:47.549 --> 00:10:50.289 would be disastrous. Huge problem. So by ensuring 00:10:50.289 --> 00:10:53.450 that every single bill in Hawaii had the specific 00:10:53.450 --> 00:10:56.750 brown serial number and overprint, the U .S. 00:10:56.769 --> 00:10:59.659 government created a physical safeguard. If the 00:10:59.659 --> 00:11:02.580 islands fell, Washington could instantly declare 00:11:02.580 --> 00:11:05.600 any bill with the Hawaii overprint to be completely 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.539 worthless. Effectively rendering the seized currency 00:11:08.539 --> 00:11:11.419 useless for funding the enemy's war effort. Or 00:11:11.419 --> 00:11:13.840 precisely. That is brilliant. It's like physical 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:17.279 DRM for money. It really is. After the war, though, 00:11:17.580 --> 00:11:19.559 the changes to the bill get a lot more subtle, 00:11:19.899 --> 00:11:22.299 but they feel, I don't know, surprisingly poetic. 00:11:22.409 --> 00:11:25.529 Like in 1948, the engravers updated the White 00:11:25.529 --> 00:11:27.450 House on the back of the bill. They added the 00:11:27.450 --> 00:11:29.309 Truman balcony, which had just been constructed. 00:11:29.690 --> 00:11:31.070 Right. But they also did something else. They 00:11:31.070 --> 00:11:33.009 actually drew the trees around the White House 00:11:33.009 --> 00:11:35.610 to be noticeably larger. It's a beautiful touch. 00:11:36.049 --> 00:11:39.090 It really demonstrates that money despite being 00:11:39.090 --> 00:11:41.490 this cold instrument of commerce, is treated 00:11:41.490 --> 00:11:44.490 by its creators as a living document. It reflects 00:11:44.490 --> 00:11:47.450 the literal passage of time. And that concept 00:11:47.450 --> 00:11:51.210 of a living document really crystallizes in 1963. 00:11:52.090 --> 00:11:54.809 Two massive conceptual shifts happen to the 20 00:11:54.809 --> 00:11:58.309 at the exact same time. The legal tender designation 00:11:58.309 --> 00:12:00.850 changes completely. The currency is taken off 00:12:00.850 --> 00:12:03.269 the silver backing. Yeah, you can no longer walk 00:12:03.269 --> 00:12:06.090 into the treasury and redeem your paper 20 for 00:12:06.090 --> 00:12:09.129 lawful physical silver. money, it becomes pure 00:12:09.129 --> 00:12:12.090 fiat currency. And coincidentally, in that exact 00:12:12.090 --> 00:12:16.159 same year, the in God We Trust is added above 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:18.200 the White House. Two fundamental changes to the 00:12:18.200 --> 00:12:20.419 philosophical nature of American money just implemented 00:12:20.419 --> 00:12:22.759 in a single redesign. Yeah. But as we move out 00:12:22.759 --> 00:12:24.460 of the mid -century and into the modern era, 00:12:24.580 --> 00:12:26.960 the changes stop being about aesthetics or balconies 00:12:26.960 --> 00:12:29.720 or mottos. The bill enters a high stakes arms 00:12:29.720 --> 00:12:32.179 race against counterfeiting. Oh, totally. The 00:12:32.179 --> 00:12:34.679 Treasury essentially has to treat the $20 bill 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:37.320 like a software program. Every time consumer 00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:40.460 technology gets better, the bill requires a new 00:12:40.460 --> 00:12:43.440 security patch to fight off hackers or Well, 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:45.399 in this case, counterfeiters. OK, I need you 00:12:45.399 --> 00:12:47.519 to break down exactly how these modern security 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:49.379 patches work, because we always hear terms like 00:12:49.379 --> 00:12:52.299 color shifting ink or micro printing. But how 00:12:52.299 --> 00:12:55.559 does ink actually shift color? It relies on optical 00:12:55.559 --> 00:12:58.580 physics. The ink used for the number 20 in the 00:12:58.580 --> 00:13:00.820 bottom right corner of the modern bill contains 00:13:00.820 --> 00:13:03.899 microscopic metallic flakes. OK. When you hold 00:13:03.899 --> 00:13:06.899 the bill flat, light hits those flakes one way 00:13:06.899 --> 00:13:09.759 and looks copper. But when you tilt the bill, 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:13.159 the angle of the light changes, and the reflected 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:15.879 color physically shifts from copper to green. 00:13:16.019 --> 00:13:18.519 Wow. Yeah. And you cannot replicate that effect 00:13:18.519 --> 00:13:21.460 with a standard color inkjet printer. They also 00:13:21.460 --> 00:13:23.960 embedded a vertical plastic strip inside the 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:26.419 fabric. If you shine an ultraviolet blacklight 00:13:26.419 --> 00:13:28.860 on it, that strip glows bright green and reveals 00:13:28.860 --> 00:13:31.679 the text USA 20. And then there is the feature 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:33.980 added in 2003, which just sounds like something 00:13:33.980 --> 00:13:36.220 out of a spy novel, the Uranian constellation. 00:13:36.500 --> 00:13:38.659 If you look closely at the back of a modern 20, 00:13:39.080 --> 00:13:42.500 there are dozens of tiny, faint yellow number 00:13:42.500 --> 00:13:44.820 20s scattered around the background. It just 00:13:44.820 --> 00:13:47.299 looks like a stylistic shading choice. But it 00:13:47.299 --> 00:13:51.149 is actually a digital trap. Modern imaging software 00:13:51.149 --> 00:13:54.629 inside your home scanner or a commercial photocopier 00:13:54.629 --> 00:13:57.549 is specifically programmed to recognize the spatial 00:13:57.549 --> 00:14:01.169 relationship, the exact geometric distances between 00:14:01.169 --> 00:14:03.409 those tiny yellow dots. Wait, so the machine 00:14:03.409 --> 00:14:06.509 is actively looking for it? Exactly. The moment 00:14:06.509 --> 00:14:08.769 the software detects that constellation pattern, 00:14:09.070 --> 00:14:11.549 it instantly shuts down the scan. The machine 00:14:11.549 --> 00:14:13.970 will either freeze or just print a completely 00:14:13.970 --> 00:14:16.929 blank page. The software simply refuses to process 00:14:16.929 --> 00:14:19.370 the image. That is wild. So we have this highly 00:14:19.370 --> 00:14:21.730 engineered piece of fabric fighting a silent 00:14:21.730 --> 00:14:24.669 war against consumer electronics. But despite 00:14:24.669 --> 00:14:27.009 all of these invisible technological updates, 00:14:27.250 --> 00:14:29.669 the most heavily debated feature of the $20 bill 00:14:29.669 --> 00:14:32.210 today isn't the glowing strip or the optical 00:14:32.210 --> 00:14:34.330 ink. It's the one thing we actually look at, 00:14:34.710 --> 00:14:37.649 the portrait. Which brings us to the modern redesigned 00:14:37.649 --> 00:14:40.740 tug -of -war. And this raises an important question. 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:44.139 How does a modern democracy decide whose face 00:14:44.139 --> 00:14:46.419 belongs on its currency, especially when the 00:14:46.419 --> 00:14:49.360 physical money itself requires a decade of complex 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:52.080 engineering to produce? It is a massive collision 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:55.139 of public sentiment, political theater, and slow 00:14:55.139 --> 00:14:58.399 -moving, cold bureaucracy. Let's trace exactly 00:14:58.399 --> 00:15:00.360 how this played out, because it's a roller coaster. 00:15:00.519 --> 00:15:03.080 It really is. It begins with a grassroots campaign 00:15:03.080 --> 00:15:06.919 called Women on Twenties. The explicit goal was 00:15:06.919 --> 00:15:09.620 to have a female portrait on the $20 bill by 00:15:09.620 --> 00:15:12.720 the year 2020 to mark the centennial of the 19th 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:14.740 Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. 00:15:14.860 --> 00:15:17.480 Right. And they ran a massive public poll surveying 00:15:17.480 --> 00:15:21.440 over 600 ,000 people. The candidates were monumental 00:15:21.440 --> 00:15:23.679 figures in American history, including Eleanor 00:15:23.679 --> 00:15:26.840 Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Wilma Mankiller, who 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.019 was the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:32.059 But the winner, pulling in over 118 ,000 votes, 00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:35.539 was Harriet Tubman. Yeah, the public spoke. But 00:15:35.539 --> 00:15:38.159 then pop culture threw a massive wrench into 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:40.519 the machinery, because the Treasury Secretary 00:15:40.519 --> 00:15:43.100 at the time, Jack Lew, had actually been planning 00:15:43.100 --> 00:15:46.679 to put a woman's portrait on the $10 note, replacing 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:49.769 Alexander Hamilton. Right. But the timing collided 00:15:49.769 --> 00:15:53.789 perfectly with Broadway. Yeah. 2015 was the exact 00:15:53.789 --> 00:15:56.409 moment the musical Hamilton became a cultural 00:15:56.409 --> 00:15:59.330 juggernaut. It was everywhere. Alexander Hamilton's 00:15:59.330 --> 00:16:02.370 popularity surged and fans of the musical actively 00:16:02.370 --> 00:16:04.710 campaigned to keep him on the currency. Yeah. 00:16:05.070 --> 00:16:08.299 So Secretary Lew pivoted. He announced that Hamilton 00:16:08.299 --> 00:16:10.820 would stay on the 10, and Harriet Tubman would 00:16:10.820 --> 00:16:13.139 instead replace Andrew Jackson on the front of 00:16:13.139 --> 00:16:16.279 the 20. Think about that. A Broadway play literally 00:16:16.279 --> 00:16:19.019 altered the physical currency of the United States. 00:16:19.139 --> 00:16:22.299 Unbelievable. But there was a massive catch hiding 00:16:22.299 --> 00:16:25.179 in the bureaucracy. The $20 bill wasn't scheduled 00:16:25.179 --> 00:16:27.980 to be replaced until after the $10 bill. You 00:16:27.980 --> 00:16:30.340 can't just, you know, swap a JPEG on a printing 00:16:30.340 --> 00:16:33.080 press. A redesign means re -engineering that 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:35.080 entire suite of security features we just talked 00:16:35.080 --> 00:16:37.220 about. Precisely. And this is where the politicians 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:39.019 essentially wrote checks that the engineering 00:16:39.019 --> 00:16:41.100 department just couldn't cash. Oh, that's a good 00:16:41.100 --> 00:16:43.679 way to put it. The Obama administration announced 00:16:43.679 --> 00:16:46.379 the Tubman 20 with an implied target date of 00:16:46.379 --> 00:16:48.879 2020. But when the political climate shifted, 00:16:49.279 --> 00:16:52.019 that timeline became a massive point of contention. 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:55.019 Right. And let's look at the sequence of events, 00:16:55.379 --> 00:16:57.059 strictly and partially here, just following the 00:16:57.059 --> 00:17:00.220 timeline. During his campaign, Donald Trump called 00:17:00.220 --> 00:17:03.679 Harriet Tubman fantastic, but he opposed replacing 00:17:03.679 --> 00:17:06.779 Jackson on the 20, calling it pure political 00:17:06.779 --> 00:17:10.509 correctness. Then, his Treasury Secretary, Stephen 00:17:10.509 --> 00:17:13.650 Mnuchin, officially announced that the new design 00:17:13.650 --> 00:17:17.410 wouldn't be unveiled until 2026. Mnuchin stated 00:17:17.410 --> 00:17:19.450 that the 20 couldn't jump ahead of the 10 or 00:17:19.450 --> 00:17:22.190 the 50 in the redesign queue because of counterfeiting 00:17:22.190 --> 00:17:25.029 security concerns. Which naturally caused an 00:17:25.029 --> 00:17:27.369 immediate uproar. Democratic members of Congress 00:17:27.369 --> 00:17:30.069 pushed back hard, assuming the delay was a purely 00:17:30.069 --> 00:17:32.869 partisan move to block the Tubman design. They 00:17:32.869 --> 00:17:35.269 demanded a formal investigation. But the resulting 00:17:35.269 --> 00:17:38.710 2020 Inspector General report revealed the mundane, 00:17:38.990 --> 00:17:42.250 grueling reality of anti -counterfeiting bureaucracy. 00:17:42.690 --> 00:17:45.049 Yeah, the report basically concluded that the 00:17:45.049 --> 00:17:47.250 timeline hadn't actually changed at all. The 00:17:47.250 --> 00:17:49.650 engineering team always expected the 20 to be 00:17:49.650 --> 00:17:52.839 production ready around 2030. So the earlier 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:55.619 2020 target date was? It was essentially a PR 00:17:55.619 --> 00:17:58.279 announcement made outside the normal note development 00:17:58.279 --> 00:18:01.160 governance structure. It never had the recommendation 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:03.339 of the Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence Steering 00:18:03.339 --> 00:18:07.180 Committee. Wow. So the political promise completely 00:18:07.180 --> 00:18:10.259 outpaced the actual security engineering. Exactly. 00:18:10.700 --> 00:18:13.420 And we saw this reality check happen again. When 00:18:13.420 --> 00:18:15.779 the Biden administration took office in 2021, 00:18:16.339 --> 00:18:18.339 the White House initially claimed they would 00:18:18.339 --> 00:18:21.680 accelerate the Tubman redesign. But by 2022, 00:18:22.500 --> 00:18:25.000 an internal message from Treasury Secretary Janet 00:18:25.000 --> 00:18:29.119 Yellen reaffirmed the 2030 debut, exactly the 00:18:29.119 --> 00:18:31.660 timeline planned by the previous administration's 00:18:31.660 --> 00:18:34.039 security queue. Both sides of the political aisle 00:18:34.039 --> 00:18:36.740 ultimately crashed into the hard technical realities 00:18:36.740 --> 00:18:40.259 of printing secure money. It really completely 00:18:40.259 --> 00:18:42.680 reframes how I look at the money in my wallet. 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:45.160 I mean, the next time you hand over a $20 bill 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:47.680 to pay for a meal, just think about what you 00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:49.799 were actually holding. You weren't just holding 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:52.559 purchasing power. No, not at all. You are trading 00:18:52.559 --> 00:18:56.539 exactly one gram of woven cotton and linen. You 00:18:56.539 --> 00:18:59.579 are carrying the deeply ironic face of a president 00:18:59.579 --> 00:19:02.279 who destroyed a central bank and triggered a 00:19:02.279 --> 00:19:04.339 depression because he hated paper money. Right. 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:08.319 You are holding a document engineered with optical 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:10.839 physics and secret constellations to outsmart 00:19:10.839 --> 00:19:13.740 computer software. And you are holding an object 00:19:13.740 --> 00:19:16.460 standing at the dead center of a modern cultural 00:19:16.460 --> 00:19:19.059 debate. And, you know, that leaves me with one 00:19:19.059 --> 00:19:22.079 final really fascinating thing to consider, something 00:19:22.079 --> 00:19:24.299 that goes beyond the timeline of the redesign 00:19:24.299 --> 00:19:27.240 itself. What's that? Well, as we tap our phones 00:19:27.240 --> 00:19:29.839 to pay for groceries, as we use credit cards 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:31.940 and digital wallets more and more every single 00:19:31.940 --> 00:19:34.480 day, we are rapidly moving toward a complete 00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:37.539 cashless society. That's a great point. The velocity 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:40.160 of physical money is dropping. So will these 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:43.279 intense multi -year debates about whose portrait 00:19:43.279 --> 00:19:45.720 deserves to be on our paper money eventually 00:19:45.720 --> 00:19:48.720 become a relic of the past? Will this incredible 00:19:48.720 --> 00:19:52.720 complex 75 % cotton object with all its rich 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:55.700 ironies and controversies simply become a museum 00:19:55.700 --> 00:19:58.500 piece before the 2030 Harriet Tubman design even 00:19:58.500 --> 00:20:01.799 has a chance to wear out? Wow. Will the new 20 00:20:01.799 --> 00:20:04.799 outlive the era of paper money itself? That is 00:20:04.799 --> 00:20:06.740 a fantastic question to ponder next time you 00:20:06.740 --> 00:20:08.240 reach into your pocket. Thank you for joining 00:20:08.240 --> 00:20:10.660 us on this deep dive into the $20 bill. Stay 00:20:10.660 --> 00:20:12.819 insanely curious, keep looking closely at the 00:20:12.819 --> 00:20:14.640 everyday objects around you, and we will catch 00:20:14.640 --> 00:20:15.259 you on the next one.