Woman to share space on $10 bill with Hamilton

Growing numbers of Americans are going cashless, but demands to finally put a woman on paper currency persist. And now the Treasury has announced that a portrait of a woman, to be determined soon, will grace the $10 bill.

She will, however, share space with the current $10 honoree, Alexander Hamilton, a founding father (there were, of course, no mothers) and Treasury secretary to President George Washington (he of the $1 bill). Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew, who by law makes the selection, will disclose his choice by the end of the year. The new note will appear in 2020 – the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

The only criterion under law is that the chosen person must be dead, but the Treasury said Lew was looking for a woman “who was a champion for our inclusive democracy.” That would include abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who was the top choice on social media of a campaign to put a woman on the $20 bill.

Even if consumers increasingly prefer credit cards and electronic transactions, putting a woman on paper notes is certain to be an honor more long-lived than that accorded two history-making women whose images were put on coins. Susan B. Anthony, the social reformer, appeared on silver dollars minted from 1979 to 1981, and again in 1999, and Sacagawea, the Shoshone guide to the Lewis and Clark expedition, was featured on gold-colored dollar coins from 2000. Both coins, which were seen as hard to distinguish from quarters, proved unpopular, and production of them was stopped.

The Treasury has not changed the face on a bill since 1929, when Andrew Jackson replaced Grover Cleveland on the $20. Basic currency designs date to that time, but, according to the Treasury’s website, redesigns occur every seven to 10 years to guard against counterfeiting. For the latest change, the Treasury has invited the public to use the hashtag #TheNew10 “to spread the word about the redesign.”

The note will include tactile features to make it easier for people who are blind or visually impaired to identify the bill.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., had introduced legislation to put a woman on the $20 bill, and she wrote to President Barack Obama this month urging him to use his power to that end. “While it might not be the $20 bill, make no mistake: This is a historic announcement,” Shaheen said in a statement, “and a big step forward.”

This story was originally published June 17, 2015 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Woman to share space on $10 bill with Hamilton."