Whose image is on the dollar bill?

George Washington's image is on the obverse (front) of the U.S. one-dollar bill, where it has appeared continuously in its current form since 1869 and in essentially the modern design since 1929. Washington (1732 to 1799) was the first President of the United States, serving two terms from April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797, and was previously the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783) and the presiding officer of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

The portrait used on the $1 bill is engraved from the Athenaeum portrait by American artist Gilbert Stuart, an unfinished oil painting begun in 1796 and considered the most authoritative likeness of Washington. The Athenaeum painting now hangs at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as a joint holding.

The reverse of the $1 bill, redesigned in 1935, shows both sides of the Great Seal of the United States: the obverse of the Seal (the eagle with shield, olive branch, arrows, and the motto E Pluribus Unum) on the right, and the reverse of the Seal (the unfinished pyramid with the Eye of Providence and the mottos Annuit Coeptis and Novus Ordo Seclorum) on the left. The dollar bill has not been redesigned in any major way since 1963, when the words IN GOD WE TRUST were added (per Public Law 84-140 of 1955), making the $1 bill the only U.S. denomination not updated with modern anti-counterfeiting features.

Washington also appears on the obverse of the U.S. quarter (25-cent coin), where his portrait, designed by John Flanagan and based on a 1786 bust by Jean Antoine Houdon, has appeared since 1932 (the bicentennial of Washington's birth). Washington therefore appears on the most-handled U.S. paper bill ($1) and on the most-handled U.S. coin (the quarter), making his image the most reproduced presidential portrait in American daily life.

Washington Monument, the 555-foot obelisk on the National Mall, also honors him; it was completed in 1884 and was the tallest structure in the world at the time.