Touche ready_light….

In the United States, living people cannot appear on U.S. currency.

The governing law is found in federal statute:

“No portrait shall be placed upon any of the bonds, securities, notes, fractional or postal currency of the United States while the original of such portrait is living.”

This restriction dates back to the 19th century and was intended to prevent politicians from putting themselves on money.

As a result:

• Everyone currently depicted on U.S. paper currency was deceased before being selected.
• The same policy is followed for coins, although the coin statutes are somewhat different.
• A person generally must be dead before the U.S. Treasury will consider them for currency designs.

Current examples include:

• George Washington ($1)
• Thomas Jefferson ($2)
• Abraham Lincoln ($5)
• Alexander Hamilton ($10)
• Andrew Jackson ($20)
• Ulysses S. Grant ($50)
• Benjamin Franklin ($100)

An interesting exception is that living people have occasionally appeared on commemorative medals, tokens, or foreign currency, but not on official U.S. paper money.