An artist is fighting back against Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s announcement that Harriet Tubman’s image will not make it on to $20 bills until 2028 with his own stamp meant to add the iconic abolitionist hero to the bills.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that 33-year-old Dano Wall, the creator behind a 3D-printed Tubman stamp that allows users to alter bills with the Civil War-era antislavery figure’s likeness, has sold out of his stamps and is planning to create more.
{mosads}“My goal is to get 5,000 stamps out there,” he told the Post. “If there are 5,000 people consistently stamping currency, we could get a significant percent of circulating $20 bills [with the Tubman] stamp, at which point it would be impossible to ignore.”
Wall told the newspaper that “disrupting the pattern of white men” on U.S. currency would be a bold step for progress on racial issues in America.
“Putting Harriet Tubman on the front of the $20 bill would have constituted a monumental symbolic change, disrupting the pattern of white men who appear on our bills,” Wall told the Post.
“By putting her on the most popular note currently in circulation, indicates exactly what kind of a life we choose to celebrate; what values we, as a country, most hope to emulate. Harriet Tubman’s unparalleled grit, intelligence, and bravery over the course of her long life certainly make her worthy of such an honor,” he added.
Civil rights advocates have fought for years for Tubman’s image to replace that of President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner, on the $20 bill. On Wednesday, Mnuchin announced that plans first announced in 2016 to update the bill with Tubman’s image officially had been pushed back several years. Wall first designed the stamp in 2017, but has seen a resurgence of interest since Mnuchin’s announcement.
“The primary reason we’ve looked at redesigning the currency is for counterfeiting issues,” Mnuchin said Wednesday. “Based upon this, the $20 bill will now not come out until 2028. The $10 and the $50 will come out with new features beforehand.”
President Trump has expressed skepticism about removing Jackson from the $20 bill.
“Andrew Jackson had a great history, and I think it’s very rough when you take somebody off the bill,” the president said in 2016.
“I would love to see another denomination. … I think it would be more appropriate,” he added of Tubman, whom he called “fantastic.”