September 2026 Greensheet Market Analysis: Notes of Irony

In a story that would be a surprise only to someone who has been asleep for a few years, Reuters and other new outlets reported on July 7 that the United States will not "at present" be putting a portrait of Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill. The announcement by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put an end for now to a proposal first made by his predecessor Jack Lew during the Obama administration. In April 2016 he told of plans to redesign the $20 to feature Tubman, the abolitionist, activist, and conductor on the Underground Railroad on the front and Andrew Jackson and the White House on the reverse. Tubman would have been the first African American to appear on U.S. currency, and the first woman since Martha Washington in 1896.

At the same time as he introduced the $20 concept, Lew proposed a reverse of a new $5 to honor historical events at the Lincoln Memorial featuring people involved in them, including Marian Anderson, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Finally, the reverse of a new $10 would feature the Woman Suffrage Procession on March 3, 1913, that ended on the steps of the Treasury Department and honor leaders of the suffrage movement. Alexander Hamilton would remain on the front.

A new $10 is supposed to be introduced this year with, for the first time, intaglio printing to aid the visually impaired. It is the result of a federal court decision in 2008 after the American Council of the Blind sued the Treasury. The court ruled that U.S. paper currency design discriminated against blind individuals. Other than this, the Treasury Department and Bureau of Engraving and Printing have been silent concerning what the new note will look like, but one would have to be delusional to expect that women’s suffrage will have anything to do with it.

Ironically, it is possible that an American woman will now appear on a European banknote before one from the United States. On July 24, the European Central Bank (ECB) released a shortlist of ten designs for its next series of printed banknotes, based on themes of either culture or nature. One of the proposals is that Maria Callas, the legendary Greek American soprano who was born in New York City on December 2, 1923, will be featured on the face of the next 5 euro note.

She is one of the subjects in a proposed "European Culture" series in which she represents the performing arts. The others are:

• €10 – Music – Ludwig van Beethoven
• €20 – Universities and schools – Marie Curie Skłodowska
• €50 – Libraries – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
• €100 – Museums and exhibitions – Leonardo da Vinci
• €200 – Public squares – Bertha von Suttner

The proposed reverses, as described by the ECB are:

• €5 – Street performers entertaining passersby.
• €10 – A song festival with a choir of children and young adults singing.
• €20 – A school or university with a female teacher and young students. There are notebooks and books on the tables.
• €50 – A library with some adults reading paper and digital books. A little boy and girl in front of a bookcase trying to get a book.
• €100 – Adults and children admiring some examples of street art, contemporary art, etc.
• €200 – A tree-covered square allowing people to come together, with adults and children talking, walking, playing, etc.

The "nature" theme features rivers and birds on the front and European Union buildings on the back. These are explained by the ECB as follows:

• €5 – Mountain spring and Wallcreeper next to a mountain landscape / European Parliament.
• €10 – Waterfall and Kingfisher in a waterfall or run pool / European Commission. €20 – Confined river valley and Bee-eater colony in a sand wall / European Central Bank.
• €50 – White Stork flying over a meandering river in an unconfined river valley / Court of Justice of the European Union.
• €100 – Avocet sweeping over the surface of a mud flat / European Council and Council of the European Union.
• €200 – Northern gannet flying over big ocean waves / European Court of Auditors.

The ECB’s Governing Council is conducting an online survey until September 21, 2026, on ten design proposals for the two themes. Another survey will be conducted in parallel by an independent research company among a sample of European citizens.

The Governing Council is expected to make its final decision on the new design by the end of the year. It will be several years after that before the new series enters circulation. All the proposals can be viewed on the European Central Bank’s website, www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/future_banknotes/html/index.en.html. This will be the first complete redesign since the introduction of the Euro in 2002, when the notes depicted fictitious architectural renderings rather than specific structures out of fear that with fewer denominations than members, some countries would be offended by being left out.