The Treasurer of the United States (established September 6, 1777) is the only position within the United States Department of the Treasury older than the Department itself. The Treasurer was originally charged with the receipt and custody of government funds, though many of these functions have been taken over by different bureaus of the Department of the Treasury. Responsibility for oversight of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the United States Mint, and the United States Savings Bonds Division (now the Savings Bond Marketing Office within the Bureau of the Public Debt) was assigned to the Treasurer in 1981. As of 2002 the Office of the Treasurer underwent a major reorganization. The Treasurer now advises the Director of the Mint, the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the Deputy Secretary and the Secretary of the Treasury on matters relating to coinage, currency and the production of other instruments by the United States. The Treasurer's signature, as well as the Treasury Secretary's, must appear on Federal Reserve notes before they can become legal tender. Eager to appoint a woman to a prominent political position, President Harry S. Truman appointed Georgia Neese Clark Treasurer in 1949. Since then, every subsequent Treasurer has been a woman, and five of the past nine Treasurers have also been Hispanic.
