Move over, Alexander Hamilton. Literally.
There’s finally going to be a woman on U.S. paper currency.
Commentary
Ladies, it’s finally happening. One hundred years after women won the right to vote, we’re making another leap toward equality in paper form.
The U.S. Treasury announced Wednesday that, come 2020, there will be a female face (yet to be selected) on our paper money.
The USA lagged behind other nations in granting women’s suffrage in the first place, and now to celebrate that anniversary, they’re putting a historic female on paper money – a movement that we’re also late to the game on. Australia has a woman on the front or back of every banknote in circulation. Syria, Turkey, and Argentina, among others, also have famous ladies printed on their bills.
So, in other words, the U.S. response isn’t exactly timely on something that other nations have been doing for decades.
Whoever she is, the woman on our money will appear on a redesigned $10 bill. Move over, Alexander Hamilton.
No seriously, he has to move over. Because the Treasury isn’t replacing Hamilton with a woman, just adding her to the bill.
At which point, really? We’ve fought for the right to be unceremoniously stuffed into coat pockets – and to be ecstatically unearthed months later – and all we get is a shared spot on a ten?
I get it, they don’t want to ditch Hamilton. He basically invented the Treasury, and if they wiped his image completely, his ghost might haunt its halls and warp the new bills to have Buscemi eyes.
But why not replace one of the other, better bills?
Women on 20s is a group that’s been campaigning to replace Andrew Jackson (signer of the Indian Removal Act and generally not-so-stellar human) on the $20 bill.
Not only does it make sense from a historical point of view to oust Jackson, but if women are being given a spot on just one note of currency, can it at least be the one that’s dispensed at ATM’s?
Because aside from the fact that a $20 is worth more, they’re also just more common in everyday life. Some stats from the Federal Reserve: $20 bills have a life expectancy of 7.9 years and there are 8.1 billion in circulation. $10 bills have a shorter life expectancy of 4.5 years and there are far fewer – 1.9 billion – in circulation.
If we’re just not ready for a lady to have the entire 2.61’’ x 6.14’’ piece of currency all to herself, have we considered putting half of a woman on a $20 instead? Eleanor Roosevelt’s left side is quite compelling, after all.
Or maybe you think, like Women on 20s does, that Harriet Tubman should be the first woman to grace our country’s green. For that, our government is listening to you.
We the people are invited to participate in this important historical moment by tagging suggestions (using 140 characters or less) with #TheNew10. Because as we saw in March, nothing says “Take this issue seriously. Let’s incite change’’ like a good ol’ hashtag.
Here are 20 things to do in Boston that won’t cost you even one dollar:
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