Some design elements of banknotes are often considered Masonic or esoteric symbols. To some extent these claims are justified, since many of the founding fathers of the USA were Masons, and Masonic lodges have safely continued and continue to exist in the United States. However, for the most part, this symbolism was created with the sole purpose of combating counterfeiters.
The basic design of most existing dollar banknotes was approved in 1928. The banknotes feature portraits of US statesmen: the first president of the country, George Washington, adorns $1; the third president, Thomas Jefferson – $2; the 16th president of the USA, winner of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln - $5; one of the founding fathers of the USA and the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton - $10; the seventh president of the USA and one of the creators of the modern dollar, Andrew Jackson - $20; the 18th president of the USA and Civil War hero, Ulysses Grant - $50; scientist, publicist and diplomat Benjamin Franklin - $100.
Rare banknotes of $500 bear the portrait of President William McKinley, $1 thousand - President Grover Cleveland, $5 thousand - President James Madison, $10 thousand - the head of the Treasury Department during President Lincoln's administration and later Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court Salmon Chase. By the way, Chase was the first to order the inscription 'In God We Trust' to be placed on American money - it began to be minted on 2-cent coins in 1864. It appeared on paper dollars in 1957, and has been used continuously since 1963. Curiously, the first $1 banknote issued in 1863 did not bear the image of George Washington, but a portrait of Chase.
In 1864, the US Congress passed a law establishing that no living person could be depicted on American currency. This rule came about as a result of a curious story: the fact is that Spencer Clark, head of the newly formed Currency Bureau which began issuing dollars (they were used to finance the US Civil War) placed his own portrait on the 5-cent banknote (now a coin). The experiment might have gone unnoticed, especially since the portrait of a sitting official, Chase, had already appeared on money. However, Clark became the protagonist of a sex scandal: the bureau he ran employed girls (by the way, the first women hired for US government service) with whom Clark engaged in inappropriate relations for a statesman. To protect honest American dollars from disgrace and the state from ridicule, Congress passed the relevant decision.
On the other side of the banknotes are images illustrating US history and symbols of the country. On the relatively rare $2 banknote is a painting whose figures are signing the Declaration of Independence, on $5 - the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, on $10 - the US Treasury building, on $20 - the White House, on $50 - the Capitol, on $100 - Independence Hall, the building in Philadelphia where the US Declaration of Independence was signed.
All dollar banknotes are equipped with facsimile signatures of officials responsible for US finances. Initially, these were real signatures of actual people. In 1776, American separatists decided to create their own monetary unit, which was called the 'continental'. In effect, a printing press was set in motion that issued unbacked paper money (future US President, and at that time commander-in-chief, George Washington once remarked that a cartload of 'continentals' could buy a cartload of potatoes). However, each continental was signed to combat counterfeiters, who were always extremely active in North America. For this, several hundred respected citizens were recruited, who sat at tables and signed, signed, signed the new money - later many of them complained that it was the hardest work of their lives. Only in 1863 were real signatures replaced with facsimiles.
On the reverse side of the $1 banknote is the Great Seal of the United States. It consists of two images: on the right is a bald eagle shielded by a shield decorated with the pattern of the star-spangled flag. In one talon the eagle holds an olive branch (symbolizing peace) with 13 berries and 13 leaves (symbolizing the 13 colonies that formed the USA), in the other - 13 arrows (symbolizing war). The berries, leaves and arrows were borrowed by designers from the symbolism of the Iroquois confederacy. Above the eagle are 13 stars (again symbolizing the 13 colonies). The eagle's head is turned toward the olive branch, which is meant to signify the USA's desire for peace (before 1945 the eagle looked the other way). The top of the shield denotes legislative power, the eagle's head - executive, and the tail - judicial (this interpretation appeared only at the beginning of the 20th century).
Above the eagle's head is a ribbon with the Latin inscription (also of 13 letters) E Pluribus Unum - 'One from Many'. The meaning of this phrase is unclear. The searches of linguists and historians who tried to find an analogue of this phrase in the works of the ancient Romans ended in failure - a similar phrase was found only in Virgil's poem 'Georgics'. However, the explanation is extremely simple. In the 18th-19th centuries, the British magazine Gentleman's Magazine was extremely popular among the elite of Great Britain and the USA (in 1922 it ceased monthly publication and switched to quarterly, changing its name to Gentleman's Quarterly, in the 1980s it became a monthly again under the name GQ). In the early 18th century, a subscription to this magazine was extremely expensive, so gentlemen could borrow or buy an annual collection of issues: this package had been marked with the phrase E Pluribus Unum since 1731. The designers of the first American dollars borrowed someone else's slogan to give the new money solidity and respectability.
On the left is an unfinished pyramid, with the number 1776 on its base (the year of the founding of the USA, given in Roman numerals). There is no official explanation of this symbolism. It is generally believed that the pyramid symbolizes the future growth of the USA and the pursuit of perfection. Additionally, the pyramid has 13 steps - a reference to the 13 colonies and to Masonic symbolism. The "all-seeing eye" in a triangle surrounded by sun rays (a very ancient religious symbol) symbolizes the divine power watching over the world. Above the pyramid is a Latin inscription of 13 letters, Annuit Coeptis, meaning "He Approves Our Undertakings"; below the pyramid is another Latin saying, Novus Ordo Seclorum - "New Order of the Ages", symbolizing the dawn of the "American era." The pyramid, the all-seeing eye, and these inscriptions also appeared in the 18th century on the first money issued in the USA - they were proposed for use by one of the country's founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, who was a printer, publicist, inventor, scientist, diplomat, and Freemason. This is explained by two factors: the popularity of such symbolism in the art of that time (Franklin followed fashion) and the desire to complicate the work of counterfeiters, most of whom were unable to accurately copy such images and were not strong in Latin.
However, the seal existed on American money for only a few decades and was forgotten. The "Great Seal of the United States" returned to modern dollars only in the 1930s, under President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt regarded this design element as a symbol of the power of the American economy and state. He was informed about the Masonic symbolism present in the seal. After that, the president asked one of his cabinet members (a Catholic) whether these symbols would offend the feelings of believers, and received a negative answer.
The reasons why dollars acquired a green color are not thoroughly known. Until 1929, various colors were used in the production of dollars - the monochrome green appeared only in 1929. Green dyes were relatively cheap, the green color was relatively resistant to external influences, and psychologically the green color inspired trust in money and a sense of optimism. In recent years, dollar banknotes have again acquired new colors - shades of yellow and pink.
Based on materials from Washington ProFile.