The Only Two Women Featured On U.S. Paper Money

A little money talk today. In 1791, Congress gave President George Washington the go-ahead to establish a national mint, equip it with stamping machines and to hire artists to design the first U.S. coins. The first national mint was built the following year in Philadelphia and as a gesture of good faith the president donated about a hundred dollars of his wife’s silver, including a prized tea service. It was melted down and stamped into 15-hundred silver five cent pieces in July, 1792.

The U.S. has never minted anything lower than a half-cent piece. But Congress did OK a one-mill coin. It was never produced though. One thousand of them would equal one dollar.

Every real person ever pictured on paper money in the United States has been a man, except for two. From 1886 to 1891 the one dollar U.S. silver certificate carried the portrait of Martha Washington.

And in 1875, the twenty dollar bill featured a picture of Pocahontas.

It’s been over a hundred years since any woman has been featured on American paper money.

A different story in Canada – the Canadian twenty dollar bill features Queen Elizabeth.