Signature Achievement

This year's Commencement speaker, Treasury secretary Henry Paulson '68, is right on the money.

WHEN HENRY PAULSON BECAME SECRETARY OF THE U.S. Treasury last summer, one of his first official duties was to take a black pen and sign his name (left) inside the lines of five 1-by-3-inch rectangular boxes outlined on a sheet of white paper. One of those signatures now appears on the nations recently printed currency.DAM obtained one of the first "Paulson bills" off the presses at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing and asked handwriting expert Bart Baggett, the Los Angeles-based president of Handwriting University.com (you may have seen him on Larry King Live) for an analysis of Paulson's John Hancock.

"Henry's slant is substantially slanted rightward, which indicates Henry's empathetic emotional nature and ability to exude warmth and compassion to others," Baggett says of the nations 76 th Treasury secretary (and the second alum to hold the post; Salmon P. Chase, class of 1826, served from 1861 to 1864 under President Abraham Lincoln).

"He has the need and ability to express his emotions to those close to him and often makes decisions with his heart," adds Baggett.

Here are nine more elements of Paulsons signature, along with Baggett's interpretation of their meaning.