Alexander Hamilton to Share Image on $10 Bill With a Woman :Carol Lee
http://www.wsj.com/articles/alexander-hamilton-to-share-image-on-10-bill-with-a-woman-1434591472
The identity of the female will be announced later this year, says Treasury Secretary Jack Lew
For the first time in more than a century, a woman’s face will appear on an American bill.
The Treasury Department announced Wednesday it will replace the main image of its own founder, Alexander Hamilton, on the $10 bill, with a woman as yet to be determined. Mr. Hamilton will remain on the bill in a diminished way.
The currency will be unveiled in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. The last woman to appear on a bill was Martha Washington, in the late 19th century.
Americans will have the summer to weigh in on which one of history’s leading ladies they think should have the honor. There is no list of successors, but names frequently mentioned include Eleanor Roosevelt, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, civil-rights icon Rosa Parks and Wilma Mankiller, who served as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
“It’s very important to be sending the signal of how important it is to recognize the role that women have played in our national life and in our national history for a very long time, really from the beginning,” Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in an interview Wednesday. “This is a symbolic representation of that but symbols are important.”
Mr. Lew said he “will be announcing a decision later in the year. Then we will go into production.”
ENLARGE The decision to overshadow Mr. Hamilton, the first treasury secretary and a chief architect of the nation’s financial system, is part of a scheduled redesign of the $10 bill. The Legal Tender Act of 1862 gives the Treasury Department broad powers to design U.S. currency.
Displacing Mr. Hamilton isn’t the first choice for some.
A group called Women On 20s has urged President Barack Obama to replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with a woman. Organizers sent a petition to the White House last month calling for the change.
Respondents to their online poll chose Ms. Tubman for the slot.
Mr. Lew, however, said the $10 bill already was the next up for a redesign, making it the most practical vehicle for the symbolic portrait change.
Mr. Jackson may have been seen as more easily replaced. As the nation’s seventh president, he led a successful campaign to kill off the nation’s central bank and stridently argued against the dangers of a paper currency, which he said concentrated too much power in the hands of bankers.
But federal agencies in 2013 recommended starting with the $10 bill as part of a broader currency redesign that will include tactile features for the blind and visually impaired.
The last bill the U.S. redesigned was the $100 bill, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when the theme was “freedom.” Mr. Lew said the $10 bill is one of the most frequently used bills, more so than the $20 bill, which also has more sophisticated security features.
By law, the only limitation is the woman cannot be a living person.
”While it might not be the twenty dollar bill, make no mistake, this is a historic announcement and a big step forward,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D., N.H.). “Young girls across this country will soon be able to see an inspiring woman on the ten dollar bill who helped shape our country into what is today and know that they too can grow up and do something great for their country.”
Mr. Obama raised the idea of putting a woman on American currency during an economic speech in Kansas City last July. A girl wrote him a letter asking why there wasn’t a woman on U.S. currency, he said, “which I thought was a pretty good idea.”
—Nick Timiraos contributed to this article.
Write to Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com
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