It appears President Donald J. Trump’s facsimile signature will appear on new, soon-to-be-released $100 bank notes.
The law is clear, according to 31 USC 5114, enacted in 1866, that only the portraits of deceased individuals are allowed to appear on bonds, securities, and paper money. The same law does not address what signatures, if any, are to show on our money. It doesn’t matter if you take sides politically on this issue. This should be of interest not only to collectors but to the public at large.
What is so important about getting the public’s interest involved is the potential to encourage more people to collect bank notes. The Series 1976 $2 Federal Reserve Bank notes featured a new reverse that was not officially intended to be commemorative but was interpreted that way by the public. The new vignette generated sufficient interest that people were putting postage stamps on the notes and having them postmarked by hand at their local post office. First Day of Issue notes created a cross between philately and numismatics. Granted, a change in signatures isn’t as obvious as a new reverse vignette, but knowing the press, a lot of attention will likely be focused on the change in signatures once the notes enter circulation.
Notes with a presidential signature are something new. It will be interesting to see whether the vanity of future presidents will motivate them to continue this practice.
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