Who was the first president on a US 1 dollar bill?

The first $1 bill to carry a portrait of a president was issued in 1869. Like modern $1 bills it carried a portrait of George Washington, but the image wasn't the same. Among other things, Washington faced to the left side of the bill rather than to the right.

Washington's portrait wasn't on all $1 bills, though. The first federally-issued $1 bills were released in 1863 and carried a portrait of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. Later bills featured Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Gen. Washington's wife Martha.

A portrait of Washington returned in 1918 and the current image, based on a painting by Gilbert Stuart, was adopted in 1923.

While many people incorrectly believe the choice of people to appear on US currency is legally limited to presidents, in actuality the only restriction is that no living person can be depicted. For example, current bills carry portraits of Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, neither of whom served as presidents. The choice of images is solely at the discretion of the Treasury Department; older bills have carried portraits of inventors, explorers, cabinet members, and Native Americans among other images.