Register of the Treasury


The Register of the Treasury was an office of the United States Treasury Department. In 1919, the Register became the Public Debt Service which, in 1940, became the Bureau of the Public Debt.
The signature of the Register of the Treasury was found on almost all United States currency until 1923, along with that of the Treasurer of the United States. Four of the five African Americans whose signatures have appeared on U.S. currency were Registers of the Treasury.
After Woodrow Wilson appointed an African-American, Adam E. Patterson, for the position of Register of the Treasury, Southern senators expressed their opposition to Patterson on the grounds of his race, also saying they opposed any African-American for an office that would put them above Caucasian women. After Patterson quickly withdrew his name, Wilson appointed a white man, Gabe E. Parker, to the Register of the Treasury, leaving African-Americans dismayed. Parker was the first white man to hold the position in fifteen years.

Registers of the Treasury

The Treasury had eighteen Registers between 1861 and 1933.