U.S. Treasury officials on Wednesday announced that the redesigned $10 bill will feature a woman with Alexander Hamilton, who will remain on the bill. The treasury said the woman would be featured in the portrait. However, Treasury Secretary Lew said the redesign would somehow retain Hamilton, one of the country’s Founding Fathers and the first Secretary of the Treasury for the U.S.
Lew will announce his selection for who will be featured on the new $10 bill later this year, with the new note to be unveiled in 2020. However, it has not been determined when the new note will actually enter circulation.
The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. In keeping with that theme, the Treasury Department said the new $10 note “should feature a woman who was a champion for our inclusive democracy.”
The only women ever to appear on U.S. bills are Martha Washington, who was on the $1 bill in 1886, and Pocahontas, who appeared in a scene on a $10 banknote in 1869 and a $20 demand note in 1865, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The only women on U.S. coins are Susan B. Anthony, who appears on a dollar coin that is no longer minted, and Sacagawea. The Lemhi Shoshone woman who accompanied the Lewis and Clark Expedition as an interpreter and guide is on the rarely used gold dollar coin. Read more…