Jack Lew, the current White House Chief of Staff, is being widely reported as President Barack Obama's pick for the next Secretary of the Treasury.
The Treasury Secretary, among other more important duties (saving the economy, for instance), gets the privledge of having his signature on every piece of U.S. currency issued during his or her tenure. Lew's signature, however, is -- ahem -- unique:
That image came from a White House memo which circulated more than a year ago and was confirmed by Ryan Lizza to be Lew's actual signature.
We're not really seeing "Jack," "Lew," or anything that might resemble characters in the English alphabet at all anywhere in there. But hey -- it's worked for Lew so far.
So, assuming Lew is formally nominated by Obama, approved by the Senate and doesn't improve his John Hancock before starting as Treasury Secretary, we'll all be seeing a lot more of whatever this is. However, Lizza added Wednesday morning that Lew might get a first-class signature upgrade a la his soon-to-be predecessor:
BREAKING: I'm told by a knowledgable source that Lew's signature might get upgraded the way Geithner's did: marketplace.org/topics/economy…— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) January 9, 2013
Here's Geithner's post-upgrade signature on a U.S. $20 bill:
Photo via Mark Wilson/Getty Images
For more about Lew's potential nomination, visit Bloomberg. Can you decipher Lew's signature?
[nggallery id=9431]