Which US president is on the $100 bill?

The $100 Bill's Famous Face — Who Is Benjamin Franklin?

Here's the twist that trips up almost everyone: the face on the $100 bill isn't a president at all. Benjamin Franklin never held the nation's highest office, yet he earned one of the most coveted spots in American currency. That says a lot about just how extraordinary the man was.

So Who Was Benjamin Franklin?

Born in Boston in 1706, Franklin wore more hats than almost any figure in American history. He was a printer, author, inventor, scientist, diplomat, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He helped draft both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution — two of the most important documents ever written on American soil.

His scientific work was genuinely groundbreaking. His famous kite-and-key experiment in 1752 demonstrated the electrical nature of lightning, leading directly to the invention of the lightning rod. That single contribution saved countless buildings and lives across the world.

Why Does He Appear on Money If He Was Never President?

U.S. law doesn't actually require that currency feature presidents. The Treasury Department has discretion over whose likeness appears on bills, and the criteria have historically centered on historical significance and public recognition. Franklin clears both bars easily.

His face first appeared on the $100 bill in 1914, and it has remained there ever since. He also previously appeared on the $50, $100, and $1,000 bills at various points in U.S. monetary history. The man was practically a fixture of American paper currency.

The $100 Bill Today

The modern $100 bill — sometimes called a "Benjamin" or simply a "Franklin" in everyday slang — is the highest denomination of U.S. currency currently in circulation. The Federal Reserve stopped printing $500, $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 notes back in 1969, making the $100 the top of the stack.

The current design, introduced in 2013, is one of the most sophisticated banknotes ever produced. It features a 3D security ribbon, color-shifting ink on the numeral "100," and a portrait watermark of Franklin himself. Counterfeiting it is extraordinarily difficult by design.

A Legacy Bigger Than the Presidency

There's an argument to be made that Franklin's omission from the presidency actually made him more free to shape the country in other ways. As the first U.S. Ambassador to France, he secured the French alliance that proved decisive in winning the Revolutionary War. Without that diplomatic coup, American independence might have looked very different.

Franklin died in 1790 at the age of 84, and his funeral in Philadelphia drew an estimated 20,000 mourners — roughly equal to the entire population of the city at the time. For a man who was never president, that's quite a send-off.

The $100 bill, it turns out, belongs to exactly the right person.