You are thinking of Benedict Arnold. He was considered a traitor to the American cause during the American Revolution.
If you really wanted some freaky alt-world stuff, you could suppose that America did not win the Revolution and that our money might still have pictures of the British monarchy on it. At the time I guess that would have been King George III. I get my kings mixed up <g>. Or perhaps Napoleon pulled off some tricky stuff and became Emperor of the New World, so maybe he'd be on the money.
Hope this helps.
Lynn
