What dollar bill is James Garfield on?

Answer 1

President James Garfield, who served only 199 days in office before dying from complications of a gunshot wound received in an assassination attempt by Charles J. Guiteau, was pictured on two pieces of U.S. currency. He was featured in three different designs of the $5 National Bank Note, second charter, which was issued from 1882 - 1902, and on the $20 gold certificate, which was issued from 1882 - 1905, when Garfield's image was replaced by Washington's.

Both pieces of paper currency used engravings created from a portrait of Garfield taken by the famous photographer, Matthew Brady.

The design of the gold certificate drew criticism from some members of the public, who considered it ugly. One critic wrote an editorial letter to the New York Times, on September 6, 1905, that stated, in part:

"Who is it in the Treasury Department who decides finally upon the designs for the Treasury notes and banknotes? And upon what principles does he do it? How comes it that with a perfection of mechanical execution nowhere surpassed we find such a poverty of artistic design in these notes which are in everybody's hands and have as much to do with the formation of the taste of the people as any other single agency.

"...To be sure, the certificate is far from being a pretty thing, and the portrait of Garfield on the right hand side is irrelevant, incompetent and impertinent. But there is no mistaking what the thing is about....

"...At any rate, we have a right to require that persons who are not artists should not undertake to do what pretend to be works of art."

Answer 2

James Garfield is not on any bills. He is one a $1 dollar coin, part of the series by the mint honoring each dead president.