A woman will be put on $10 bill, share space with Alexander Hamilton
A woman will finally grace U.S. paper money. Perhaps just not the bill we thought.
According to The New York Times and other outlets Wednesday, the Treasury announced that a woman will share space with Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. The change will take place on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, in 2020, reported the Times.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will decide who that woman is by the end of the year, according to the Times, with the one requirement that she is already deceased. Lew is looking to pick someone who was “a champion for our inclusive democracy,’’ according to the report.
That a woman’s portrait will be put specifically on the $10 bill may come as a surprise to some, after an online campaign and Senate bill moved to put a woman on the $20 bill. In May, the Women on 20s campaign announced Harriet Tubman as the winner of their online poll to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20.
The campaign reasoned that replacing Jackson made sense because of his acts as president to pass the Indian Removal Act of 1830, driving Native Americans from their land into Oklahoma and resulting in 4,000 Cherokee deaths. Jackson also opposed central banking and supported coins over paper money.
On the other hand, Hamilton (the face of the current $10) was one of the country’s founding fathers, the first Treasury Secretary, and largely established the country’s monetary system.
However, in May, Lew told CNN that the $10 bill was up next for a redesign.
“While it might not be the $20 bill, make no mistake, this is a historic announcement,’’ New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who sponsored the bill to put a woman on the $20, told the Associated Press.
“Young girls across this country will soon be able to see an inspiring woman on the ten dollar bill,’’ Shaheen said.
News of the change was broken on Twitter by Nancy Lindborg of the U.S. Institute of Peace. Lindborg apparently also broke an embargo of Lew’s announcement, as well as the hashtag #TheNewTen.
Who is ultimately chosen won’t be the first woman to appear on U.S. currency however. Susan B. Anthony appeared on the silver dollar from 1979 to 1981 and Sacagawea has appeared on gold dollar coins starting in 1997. As the Times pointed out, both coins were difficult to distinguish from the quarter and were discontinued.
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