Face on the First US Dollar Bill

Before George Washington, the US dollar bill featured someone rather less famous. Can you name him?

It's Salmon P. Chase, of course, the treasury secretary under President Abraham Lincoln, when the dollar bill made its debut in 1863.

(Before then, people used coins, as well as gold and silver.)

It took only six years before America wised up and swapped in the first president in 1869. Here's a version from 1880:

This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.

Interestingly, First Lady Martha Washington also made an early bill — the $1 silver certificate in 1886.

Currently, the only faces on US bills are:

Washington on the $1

Thomas Jefferson on the $2

Lincoln on the $5

Alexander Hamilton on the $10

Andrew Jackson on the $20

Ulysses S. Grant on the $50

Benjamin Franklin on the $100

There's a plan in the works to replace Hamilton with a yet-to-be determined woman by 2020, though some have argued that Hamilton, the genius behind US finance and other government systems, should be kept while we ditch Jackson, who owned slaves, slaughtered Native Americans, and detested banks, finance, and corporations.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7o8HSoqWeq6Oeu7S1w56pZ5ufonynrcKeZKimXam1pnnFoqmsrF2qwG6wzqWjmqpdl7atuIxrZ2puXWY%3D

PicoD