By David Lawder
WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) - U.S. paper currency will bear President Donald Trump's signature to mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, the Treasury Department said on Thursday, a first for a sitting president, while deleting the Treasurer of the United States' signature from U.S. money for the first time in 165 years.
The Treasury said in a statement to Reuters that the first $100 bills with Trump's signature and that of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be printed
in June, followed by other bills in subsequent months.
The Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing is currently still producing notes bearing the signatures of former President Joe Biden's Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, and Treasurer Lynn Malerba.
Malerba will be the last of an unbroken line of Treasurers whose signatures had appeared on U.S. federal currency since 1861, when it was first issued by the U.S. government.
The signature change is the latest effort by the Trump administration and its allies to put the president's name on buildings, institutions, government programs, battleships and coins. The design of a commemorative gold coin with Trump's image was approved by a federal arts panel whose members he appointed.
Bessent said in a statement that the move was appropriate for the U.S. 250th anniversary, given strong U.S. economic growth, financial stability and "lasting dollar dominance" during Trump's second term.
"There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S. dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial," Bessent said.
An effort for a circulating $1 Trump coin was set back by laws prohibiting the depiction of living individuals on U.S. coins.
A statute governing the printing of Federal Reserve notes gives the Treasury broad discretion to change designs to guard against counterfeiting. The law requires keeping certain elements, including the words "In God We Trust," and only allows portraits of deceased individuals.
The overall designs of bills will not change, except for Trump's signature replacing the Treasurer's, Treasury officials said.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
