Pick up almost any piece of American paper money from the nineteenth or early twentieth century and you will find a parade of statesmen, generals, and founding fathers staring back at you. Women were largely absent from this visual canon, their likenesses appearing only in allegorical form as Columbia, Liberty, or Agriculture. The exceptions are few, historically significant, and today highly collectible. Understanding which women actually appeared on US currency, when, and under what circumstances reveals as much about American political history as it does about numismatics.
Allegorical Women: The Ubiquitous Presence Nobody Talks About
Before examining the real women who appeared on American currency, it is worth acknowledging how thoroughly allegorical female figures dominated nineteenth-century note design. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s engravers, trained in the classical tradition, routinely depicted personifications of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, and Liberty as women. The 1863 and 1864 Interest Bearing Notes, the large-format Demand Notes, and early National Bank Notes are crowded with these idealized figures.
The most famous allegorical appearance is arguably the figure of “Mechanics” on the 1863 $1 Legal Tender, and the seated Liberty figure used across dozens of note types. These were not portraits of real women, however, and contemporaries understood them as symbols rather than individuals. The leap to depicting an actual, named woman on official US paper money would take until 1869, and even then it was handled with a certain ambiguity.
Pocahontas on the 1869 $20 Legal Tender: The Vignette That Started the Conversation
The Series of 1869 Legal Tender Notes, often called the “Rainbow Notes” by collectors for their vivid polychrome printing, featured one of the most visually elaborate designs the BEP ever produced. The $20 denomination (Friedberg 127) carried a left-side vignette of the Baptism of Pocahontas, engraved after John Gadsby Chapman’s famous 1840 painting that still hangs in the US Capitol Rotunda. Pocahontas appears at the center of the scene, kneeling and receiving the Christian sacrament.
Numismatically, this is not a portrait in the traditional sense. Pocahontas does not occupy the primary portrait oval; that position belongs to Alexander Hamilton on the right side of the note. She is a narrative figure within a historical scene. Nevertheless, she is recognizably depicted as an individual with a known name, making this arguably the earliest appearance of a named woman on American paper money.
The 1869 $20 Legal Tender (Fr. 127) is a genuine key date in its own right, independent of the Pocahontas connection. Examples in Fine-15 condition can fetch $2,500 to $4,500 at auction. Because these notes circulated heavily and the complex multicolor printing is prone to fading, always examine color vibrancy carefully. PMG or PCGS graded examples with original color carry significant premiums over raw notes.
The 1869 series was printed in relatively modest quantities compared to later Legal Tender issues. The $20 denomination is scarcer than the $1 or $2 values from the same series. Circulated examples are genuinely difficult to locate in grades above Very Fine, and Extremely Fine or better survivors are prized by both type collectors and specialists in Legal Tender Notes.
Martha Washington: America’s First Lady of Paper Money
The clearest, most unambiguous example of a real woman on a US paper money portrait came in 1886, when the Bureau of Engraving and Printing issued a redesigned $1 Silver Certificate bearing the portrait of Martha Washington. This makes her the first and, for over a century, the only woman to appear in the primary portrait position on a circulating US currency note.
The 1886 series produced six signature combinations across its run, cataloged by Friedberg as Fr. 215 through Fr. 221. The obverse carried Martha Washington’s portrait engraved by Charles Schlecht, based on a Gilbert Stuart portrait. The back design featured an ornate green geometric lathe-work pattern. Treasury seal colors and positions varied across the signature combinations, creating the variety that collectors pursue today.
The 1886 Signature Varieties
The six primary varieties are defined by the Treasurer/Secretary signature pairs. Fr. 215 (Rosecrans-Jordan) and Fr. 216 (Rosecrans-Hyatt) are the two most commonly encountered types, though neither is truly abundant in high grade. Fr. 217 (Rosecrans-Huston) is identified by its large brown Treasury seal and is scarcer than Fr. 215 or 216. Fr. 218 (Rosecrans-Nebeker) and Fr. 219 (Rosecrans-Nebeker, small red seal) see a meaningful jump in scarcity. Fr. 221 (Tillman-Morgan) represents the final signature combination of the 1886 series and is considerably more difficult to find in grades above Very Fine.
The 1891 series continued Martha Washington’s portrait on the $1 Silver Certificate under Friedberg numbers Fr. 222 through Fr. 226. The 1891 design is immediately distinguishable from the 1886 by its back, which replaced the elaborate green engraving with a simpler design featuring the large numeral “1” in the center. Signature varieties again drive rarity, with the Fr. 223 (Rosecrans-Nebeker) and Fr. 225 (Tillman-Morgan) being notably scarcer than the more common Fr. 222 (Rosecrans-Huston) type.
When building a Martha Washington type set, condition expectations should be adjusted by variety. For the common Fr. 215 and Fr. 222 types, aim for Very Fine-25 or better, as enough examples exist to be selective. For the scarcer varieties like Fr. 219 or Fr. 225, a well-centered Fine-15 with good color and no repairs is a perfectly respectable acquisition. Avoid any example that has been pressed, washed, or chemically cleaned, as the fine line engraving on Silver Certificates shows these treatments very clearly.
The $5 Silver Certificate Connection
Martha Washington also appeared on the back of the Series 1896 $1 Silver Certificate, part of the celebrated “Educational Series.” However, her most significant secondary appearance is on the back of the 1891 $2 Silver Certificate (Fr. 247-248). Here her portrait appears alongside that of General Winfield Scott Hancock on the face, making the 1891 $2 a somewhat unusual note: a female portrait on the back, a male portrait on the front. These $2 Silver Certificates are legitimately scarce and represent an interesting collecting niche.
The Educational Series: Women as Allegory, Refined
The 1896 Educational Series Silver Certificates ($1, $2, and $5 denominations) represent perhaps the most artistically ambitious currency the United States ever produced. The allegorical female figures on this series, designed by Will Low and Edwin Blashfield, are extraordinarily detailed. The $1 note depicts “History Instructing Youth,” the $2 shows “Science Presenting Steam and Electricity to Commerce and Manufacture,” and the $5 features portraits of Ulysses Grant and Philip Sheridan on the face with an allegorical female figure on the reverse.
While these are allegorical rather than named individuals, their artistic quality and the degree of detail given to the female figures makes the Educational Series a natural home in any collection focused on women in US currency iconography. The $1 Educational (Fr. 224) is the most frequently encountered; the $2 (Fr. 247) and $5 (Fr. 268-270) are considerably scarcer and command strong premiums in all grades.
The Twentieth Century Gap
After the Martha Washington Silver Certificates ceased production in the early 1890s, American paper money retreated almost entirely to male portraits for the better part of a century. The transition to smaller-size currency in 1929 standardized designs and locked in a roster of presidents and founding fathers that persisted with only minor variation through the rest of the twentieth century. Women appeared only in vignette scenes, as allegorical figures on older large-size notes that were gradually withdrawn, or not at all.
This gap is not simply a numismatic curiosity. It reflected deliberate institutional choices. The process of selecting currency portraits was controlled by Treasury officials who, with few exceptions, defaulted to the established canon of presidents. Proposals to add women to currency designs were made periodically but consistently deferred or rejected.
If you want to assemble a historically coherent “Women on US Currency” exhibit for paper money shows, consider including a high-quality reproduction of the 1869 Pocahontas vignette alongside original examples of the Martha Washington Silver Certificates and the Educational Series notes. The American Numismatic Association’s exhibit guidelines allow clearly labeled reproductions alongside originals when the originals are prohibitively rare for display. Frame your narrative around the 1869-1891 window as the only era when real women were consistently depicted.
The Susan B. Anthony Dollar and Currency Reform Debates
Though outside the strict scope of paper money, the 1979 introduction of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin is relevant context for currency collectors. The Anthony dollar was the first US coin to depict a real woman since the 1893 Isabella quarter, and the debate surrounding its introduction directly foreshadowed later discussions about paper money redesign. The coin was widely criticized for its similarity in size to the quarter and was a commercial failure by production metrics, but it represented a genuine policy shift at the Treasury and laid intellectual groundwork for future currency discussions.
Harriet Tubman and the Modern Redesign Saga
In April 2016, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced that Harriet Tubman would replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 Federal Reserve Note. The announcement was greeted with widespread public support and generated enormous media coverage. Jackson would be moved to the back of the note, a design element that would have been historically unusual for US currency, where the back has traditionally been reserved for buildings, monuments, or allegorical scenes rather than secondary portraits.
The timeline that followed is a study in institutional delay. The Trump administration, which took office in January 2017, deprioritized the redesign. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin cited anti-counterfeiting concerns and suggested the new design might not appear until 2028. The Biden administration announced in January 2021 that it was accelerating the process, but the practical constraints of currency production, engraving lead times, and the ongoing broader Federal Reserve Note redesign program (which addresses counterfeit deterrence across all denominations) have pushed realistic introduction dates to 2030 or beyond.
For collectors, the anticipation surrounding the Tubman $20 has already had a measurable effect on the existing market for Harriet Tubman memorabilia and on interest in the current Andrew Jackson $20 series. When the Tubman note finally enters circulation, it will generate the kind of public collecting rush not seen since the introduction of the State Quarters program. First-day issues, specific Federal Reserve district notes, and any star replacement notes from early production runs will be immediately sought after.
Other Women in the Modern Redesign Plan
The 2016 Treasury announcement covered more than just the $20. Secretary Lew’s plan included placing suffragist leaders, including Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, and Alice Paul, on the back of the redesigned $10 Federal Reserve Note, which would retain Alexander Hamilton on the front. The back of the $5 was to feature historical images from the Lincoln Memorial, including a depiction of Marian Anderson’s famous 1939 concert. These changes remain formally planned but unimplemented as of 2024.
| Series / Friedberg No. | Description | Approx. Known / Survivors | Rarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1869 Fr. 127 | $20 Legal Tender, Pocahontas vignette | Several hundred, VF or better rare | Rare |
| 1886 Fr. 215 | $1 Silver Cert., Rosecrans-Jordan | Moderate survivors, mostly circulated | Scarce |
| 1886 Fr. 217 | $1 Silver Cert., Rosecrans-Huston, large brown seal | Fewer survivors than Fr. 215 | Scarce |
| 1886 Fr. 219 | $1 Silver Cert., Rosecrans-Nebeker, small red seal | Low survival rate, XF+ very difficult | Rare |
| 1886 Fr. 221 | $1 Silver Cert., Tillman-Morgan | Scarce across all grades | Rare |
| 1891 Fr. 222 | $1 Silver Cert., Rosecrans-Huston | Most common 1891 Martha Washington | Common |
| 1891 Fr. 225 | $1 Silver Cert., Tillman-Morgan | Notably scarce, seldom seen in EF | Scarce |
| 1891 Fr. 247 | $2 Silver Cert., back Martha Washington portrait | Low overall survival, key type note | Key Date |
| 1896 Fr. 224 | $1 Educational Silver Cert., allegorical female | Most available Educational note | Common |
| 1896 Fr. 247 | $2 Educational Silver Cert. | Significantly scarcer than $1 Educational | Scarce |
Building a Collection: Strategies for Every Budget
A focused collection documenting women on US paper money is achievable at multiple budget levels. For collectors working with $500 to $1,500, an 1891 Fr. 222 Martha Washington in Very Fine-25 (currently trading in the $175-$300 range) paired with an 1896 Educational $1 in Fine to Very Fine condition (typically $200-$400) and a solid circulated example of the 1869 $20 type note (which requires a larger budget but is not impossible to find around $1,500 in Fine) creates the core of a genuinely meaningful exhibit.
Serious collectors targeting high-grade examples should focus on the 1886 series, where the premium for Extremely Fine and better survivors is substantial but the notes are among the most visually striking in all of American numismatics. A PMG-graded Very Fine-35 or Extremely Fine-40 example of Fr. 215 or Fr. 216 represents a collection centerpiece that holds value well. The finer Friedberg numbers within the 1886 series, particularly Fr. 219 and Fr. 221, are legitimate rarities that auction houses handle only periodically.
For the forward-looking collector, establishing a complete set of current Andrew Jackson $20 Federal Reserve Notes by Federal Reserve district, in crisp uncirculated condition, and preserving early-print Tubman $20 notes when they eventually reach circulation, is a strategy that combines historical significance with genuine future collectibility. The transition notes, those Andrew Jackson $20s printed in the final months before the Tubman design enters circulation, may ultimately be recognized as the last of an era.
Conclusion: A History Still Being Written
The history of women on American paper money is simultaneously shorter and richer than most collectors expect. From a single vignette in 1869 to a handful of Silver Certificate series in the 1880s and 1890s, and then a gap of over a century before a formal commitment to change, the story reflects broader currents in American social and political history. Martha Washington’s quiet, dignified portrait on the 1886 Silver Certificate is not just a numismatic curiosity. It is a historical document that raises pointed questions about who gets to be commemorated, who makes those decisions, and how long change actually takes. When Harriet Tubman’s portrait finally enters your wallet, that context will make the note more meaningful, not less.
