US $20 bills being removed from circulation: when is it and what happens next?

On a regular basis the federal government redesigns the US currency primarily in order to increase security by integrating the latest anti-counterfeiting features. It can take several years to redesign and test the new banknotes until they are ready for production and issuance says the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP).

Many thought that 2020 was supposed to be the year that the US $20 bill would get its makeover. The Obama administration announced in 2016 that Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist, would replace President Andrew Jackson, a slave owner and who oversaw the forcible relocation of Native Americans, on the $20 bill.

Then-Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced plans at the time to release the “final concept design” for 2020. So, when Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced in 2019 that the redesign wouldn’t be unveiled until 2028 there was quite a stir.

However, the director of the BEP at the time, Len Olijar, told CNBC that it was “too early to develop an integrated concept or design until security features are finalized.” According to Manchin, Treasury policy was to not release images until around six months before a bill is issued.

“Not only is it a mistake to give counterfeiters a look at potential security features, currency designs undergo a number of iterations and can change during testing,” Olijar said in a statement. “Moreover, as U.S. currency is a world currency, it is important not to confuse the public with design changes.”

US $20 bills being removed from circulation: when is it and what happens next?

The current Secretary of the Treasury Department, Janet Yellen, was asked earlier this year on NPR’s ‘Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me’, when $20 bills with Harriet Tubman’s face would be on them. She could only say, “I’m working on it. I’m going to have that happen. All right. Promise.”

According to the Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence Committee the sequence and planned issuance dates for different denominations that have been in place since 2011, the new $20 bills are scheduled for release in 2030.

If you have a design that was issued prior to that date it will still be valid currency unless it is “mutilated” and kept in circulation until it becomes “unfit.” The typical $20 bill generally stays in circulation for a little under eight years and there are no plans to remove the $20 bill denomination from circulation, nor other denominations such as rumors about the $100 bill.