Tubman 3-D stamp plans offered by printer
- Published: Sep 28, 2018, 10 AM

The old tourist trap trick of taking an image of someone else and placing it over the real portrait on U.S. currency has gone 3D. And those disappointed at the Trump administration’s apparent decision not to put Harriet Tubman on the $20 Federal Reserve note now have a small reason to rejoice.
The web blog Kottke.org announced that Dano Wall of New York City, who works with 3D printers, said he was “saddened by the news that the Trump administration was walking back that plan. So I created a stamp to convert Jacksons into Tubmans myself. I have been stamping $20 bills and entering them into circulation for the last year, and gifting stamps to friends to do the same.”
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He has now expanded his reach, and anyone with access to a 3D printer can download the stamp here. Instructions are included.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing would classify this as a “celebrity note.” The BEP website specifies the penalties for mutilating or otherwise altering Federal Reserve notes. It includes penalties for turning them into business cards, notices, or advertisements. The creators, however, say that this is a political message and although a form of civil disobedience, “because we all want these bills to stay in circulation and we’re stamping to send a message about an issue that’s important to us, it’s legal!”
The BEP says about celebrity notes in general that “this and other similar treatments of United States currency are demeaning. This type of enterprise is neither endorsed nor authorized by officials at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.”
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