Why is Ivy Baker Priest's signature on 1935 US silver certificate?

Answer 1

Ivy Baker Priest was the US Treasurer during the Eisenhower Administration (1953-1961) so it seems strange that her signature should be on bills dated 1935. The reason is that unlike dates on coins, the dates on US bills aren't necessarily the year they were printed. They indicate the start of what's called a "series". The letter is a kind of subseries within the series year.

Up till 1974, a series date represented the year that a particular design was adopted. The series date stayed the same until that particular design was replaced. The 1935 series of $1 bills was never redesigned, so the date stayed the same for its entire run - all the way up to the early 1960s.

If you look next to the date on your bill there should be a small letter "E" or "F", depending on who was Secretary of the Treasury when the bill was printed. These "series letters" indicate how many changes of signatures occurred since the series began. When a new Treasury Secretary or US Treasurer was appointed, the letter would be changed. The start of the series had no letter. When a new official was appointed an A would be added, then B, C, and so on.

The somewhat absurd situation of 1935-dated bills being printed in the 1960s led to a change of policy in 1974. Since then, the series date is changed whenever a new Treasury Secretary is appointed, in addition to whenever there's a new design. The series letter now changes only when or if a new Treasurer is appointed during that series year.