Economix Blog: Jacob Lew’s Signature, Squiggle-Free

7:50 p.m. | Updated

Those awaiting a new, Slinky-like John Hancock to grace their dollar bills may be disappointed. On Tuesday, the Treasury Department released a copy of Secretary Jacob Lew’s signature, to appear on the bottom of newly printed dollar bills as early as the fall, and Mr. Lew’s famous loops are gone.

United States Treasury Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew’s signature as it will appear on currency.

The new signature is illegible, but it looks like a traditional signature. It is starkly different from previous copies of his signature that surfaced from his days as White House chief of staff and director of the Office of Management and Budget:

The White House

That earlier signature – a roller-coastering series of (usually) seven connected loops, resembling a long series of zeros or O’s – had attracted widespread mockery and armchair psychoanalysis from the media and Twitterverse, and had been compared to a crazy straw, the icing on a Hostess cupcake, and Charlie Brown’s hair. The signature even made appearances on “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report.”

Asked about his opinion of the new signature on Tuesday afternoon, John Oliver, who is the host of “The Daily Show” this summer, said he hadn’t seen it yet. “What is it now, a series of squares?” he said. “Has he moved onto a new form of geometry? Or does it look like a real adult’s signature?”

The Treasury Department declined to provide a comment from Mr. Lew about the evolution of his signature, but said he did not go through any particular training to get his signature up to snuff.

A spokeswoman explained that once a new secretary is sworn in, there is an 18-week process during which the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces a new currency. That process includes getting the signature (the secretary sat down and signed a couple of sheets of paper in a binder 10 times, one of which was ultimately chosen to be used on every new bill that is printed); approving the signature for technical reproduction; and getting the printing plates made.

The first bills to feature Mr. Lew’s signature will be five-dollar bills that will roll off the presses later this summer, and appear in circulation as early as the fall. The Federal Reserve, which controls the money supply, determines exactly when the bills appear in circulation.

It’s common for both Treasury secretaries and treasurers, who also sign currency, to “practice and refine” their signatures, the spokeswoman said. Mr. Lew’s predecessor, Timothy F. Geithner, had also acknowledged in an interview on “Marketplace” that his signature had evolved. When the interviewer, Kai Ryssdal, said he preferred the old version of the signature, Mr. Geithner said, “I think on the dollar bill I had to write something where people could read my name.”

“I didn’t try for elegance. I tried for clarity,” he added.

One Web site offers a collection of all the Treasury secretary signatures that have appeared on American currency.

Article source: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/18/jacob-lews-signature-squiggle-free/?partner=rss&emc=rss