When I went to my bank’s ATM recently, I wanted to withdraw $100.

I have done this often without thinking about it, but this time when the question on the screen asked “all $20s or all $50s?” I hesitated.

In the past, I have always chosen “$20s,” because $50s are pains, especially because some stores will not take them. Counterfeiters, you know. Once I gave a $50 thinking it was a $20, got change for a $20 and didn’t realize it until 300 miles later, which soured me on them forever.

But this time, I had to stop to think. OK, if get $20s, I will be getting bills with the portrait of slave-owner Andrew Jackson, our seventh U.S. president and signer of the “Indian Removal Act.” If I choose $50s, I will be carrying around the portrait of Ulysses S. Grant, our 18th president and Civil War hero but also owner of at least one slave. Grant was acknowledged to be a great general but an ineffective president.

There are no other options.

I thought to myself: “Gee, maybe banks should give me a different option, like all $10s, all $5s, all $1s or a combination of the three. This way, I would not have a guilty conscience.

Truth is, though, I am not sure I would be able to close my wallet with that many 10-dollar or five-dollar bills. I know for sure that 100 one-dollar bills will be sticking out of all of my pockets. Don’t even bring up the $2 bill. That would be way too confusing.

If I were given these alternative options, though, I would be carrying around portraits of one of the Founding Fathers who was probably the most vocal abolitionist around the time of the Revolution, Alexander Hamilton, on the $10 bill; our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, on the $5 bill, and our first president, George Washington, on the one. Did you remember that our third president, Thomas Jefferson, is on the $2 bill?

Since Hamilton was an adulterer, Lincoln seems to be the only one untarnished by the current movement to sanitize our history. Washington, a holder of many slaves on his Mount Vernon plantation, is now being singled out for scrutiny despite his being considered the “Father of His Country,” and the legendary boy who could not tell a lie.

Each of the bills in circulation now, with the exception of Hamilton and one other, bears the portrait of a U.S. president.

The one bill I haven’t mentioned yet is the $100 bill, which bears a portrait of Pennsylvania’s own Benjamin Franklin, who despite being a womanizer was held in high esteem.

While this might be an option banks could consider for an ATM withdrawal, just as with the $50 bill, some restaurants and retailers won’t accept them.

I have often wondered about this refusal. Some doctors and dental practices have posted notices that they will not take cash. I didn’t realize this was legal. After all, on every bill in my wallet, it says, “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private.”

I pay only with credit cards, but I wonder if someone said, “I don’t have credit cards or a checking account; all I have is cash,” what would happen?

We don’t think much about the bills in our wallets or purses, except when we don’t have any, but did you ever examine the lowly dollar bill? It is so cool compared to the higher denomination bills.

On the front is the U.S. Treasury seal. Within the seal are balancing scales representing justice. At the center the chevron’s 13 stars represent the original colonies. The key is a representation of official authority.

The back of the dollar bill is a masterpiece of symbolism that took six years to be approved. Hidden within the Great Seal of the United States are the messages that the Founding Fathers wanted to send to future generations.

The most striking feature of the front of the seal is an eagle holding in its left talon 13 arrows, signifying war, and in its right talon an olive branch, signifying peace. The eagle holds a banner in its beak with the words “E Pluribus Unum,” (Out of many, one).

The reverse of the Great Seal features an unfinished pyramid, which signifies “strength and duration.” The pyramid is composed of 13 rows of building blocks (for the 13 colonies), on the first of which are the Roman numerals representing 1776 (when the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain). The Latin inscription “Novus Ordo Seclorum” translates to “A New Order of the Ages.”

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com