United States Twenty-Dollar Bill

What it is

The twenty-dollar bill is a denomination of U.S. paper currency. Since the series of 1928, its front has carried a portrait of Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. president, with the White House shown on the back. The design has been updated many times since, and the note remains in circulation today.

Why it matters

Putting Jackson on money is often called ironic: as president he strongly opposed a national bank and paper money itself, helping destroy the Second Bank of the United States. Treasury officials said the portrait was chosen simply because Jackson's face was familiar to the public, not for political reasons. The debate over replacing him with Harriet Tubman shows that how later generations picture Jackson is still argued over.

Look closer

• Why might a government choose to honor a president who opposed the very system of paper money he appears on?
• What does the choice of whose face appears on money tell us about who a society wants to remember?
• What is left out of a banknote portrait that a fuller history would include?