By CoinWeek News Staff ….
On June 5, 2024, Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ9) introduced H.R.8620, an amendment to the Federal Reserve Act to allow the portrait of former president and now convicted felon Donald J. Trump on the $500 bill. The proposal is the latest in a series of partisan political performances by GOP members of the House of Representatives in the lead up to the fall 2024 general election.
United States currency denominations of amounts higher than $100 have not been printed since 1945, and have been out of general circulation since 1969, according to information posted on the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s (BEP) website.
While a case could be made in support of the reissue of high denomination currency notes, lawmakers and the United States Treasury Department have demonstrated an increasing hostility towards untraceable financial transactions and have initiated a series of reporting requirements to combat money laundering, organized crime, terrorism, and underreporting of personal income. The counterfeiting of high denomination notes also poses a significant risk to the American financial system.
Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services the same day as its introduction, no further action has been taken on the bill in the weeks since. It is unlikely that Trump will appear on a new $500 note or any other denomination.
Meanwhile, work on the Harriet Tubman $20 Federal Reserve Note, as far as is known, has not resumed after the announced redesign was canceled in the opening months of the Trump Administration. President Joe Biden had committed to its resumption early in his Administration.
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