Is it modern art? Is it a slinky? No — it’s the new signature on our cash.
President Obama’s treasury-secretary nominee — Queens native and current Chief of Staff Jacob “Jack” Lew — has an oddly loopy autograph that will soon grace all of our national paper currency.
Lew’s signature — which looks like a strand of hair gone though a curler treatment — might even be too peculiar to grace our greenbacks, political insiders said.
“Whoa! That’s completely unintelligible,” said a Senate finance aide.
“This doesn’t look like anyone’s name at all.”
She concluded, “Oh my gosh — I’ve never seen a signature like that.”
Some social-media users were also quick to poke fun, saying Lew should clean up his squiggle.
“HE GOT A CRIZZAZY SIGNATURE!!!!” one Twitter user wrote.
Another tweeter quipped, “Looooooo!”
But just because his autograph looks it’s penned by a drunken 3-year-old doesn’t mean it isn’t lovable, others said. Some fans created a petition on the White House’s Web site called “Save the Lewpty-Lew!”
“We demand Lew’s doodle on every dollar bill in circulation,” the petition read. It had garnered 10 signatures by late yesterday.
Handwriting analysts have an ominous message for Americans, though.
“It’s so messy — he’s not showing you who he his,” said analyst Sheila lowe.
“It looks like barbed wire . . . He’s hiding who he really is.”
More serious folks defended the doodle.
“A signature is a signature. How can I tell you not to sign the way you sign it?” said Darlene Anderson, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.
Treasury secretaries in the past have been asked to submit five samples of their signature.
“We’ll select the best one or the one the secretary approves of,” Anderson said.
Outgoing Treasury boss Timothy Geithner last year had to change his signature — it was a scrawl — after he submitted it.
Asked yesterday if Lew had been practicing to improve his signature, presidential press secretary Jay Carney, said, “Not that I’m aware of.”