Washington – Harriet Tubman? Eleanor Roosevelt? Rosa Parks?
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Speculation is rising over which American woman will be chosen to grace the $10 bill, which has featured Alexander Hamilton since 1929. The answer will come sometime after summer, after Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew considers suggestions from anyone who wants to offer one — through town hall meetings or online.
Whoever is chosen by Lew will be the first woman to appear on U.S. paper currency in more than a century.
The bill’s actual design won’t be unveiled until 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
Treasury has created a website — www.thenew10.treasury.gov — for Americans to submit suggestions. The public can propose both which woman should be chosen and which symbols of democracy should be included in the redesigned bill. Comments can also be submitted on Twitter using the hashtag #TheNew10.
“We are asking the American people to tell us what democracy means to them,” Lew told reporters. “Their feedback will shape what the new bill will look like.”
The first information sessions will be in Fort Worth, Texas, on June 24 and Washington on July 15 at the two printing facilities that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing uses to produce the nation’s paper money.
The effort to put a woman on the currency began as a grassroots effort with a group known as Women on 20s launching a petition campaign to urge President Barack Obama to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with a woman.
Last summer, Obama expressed support for the effort. He said he had received a letter from a young girl suggesting such a change.
Lew offered no hints of whom he might choose, saying he first wanted to hear the views of the public. But the Women on 20s group conducted an Internet poll in which more than 600,000 votes were cast. Harriet Tubman, the African-American abolitionist, emerged as the winner.
In that poll, which asked people to first pick three finalists from among 15 women, Eleanor Roosevelt came in second, followed by Rosa Parks, the civil rights heroine, and Wilma Mankiller, the first woman to serve as chief of the Cherokee Nation.
By law, only the portrait of a deceased person can appear on the nation’s banknotes.
Treasury officials said that Hamilton, the nation’s first Treasury secretary, will not disappear from the redesigned $10 bill. They said they expect his image to be retained in some way on the redesigned bill.
“There are many options for continuing to honor Hamilton,” the Treasury said in a fact sheet. “While one option is producing two bills, we are exploring a variety of possibilities.”
The redesign of the $10 bill is the first since 2006, when new security features were added. A change in portraits on the bills is rare. The last such changes occurred between 1914 and 1928.
The paper currency has been an all-male domain for more than a century. The last woman featured on U.S. paper money was Martha Washington, who appeared on a dollar silver certificate from 1891 to 1896. The only other woman featured on U.S. paper money was Pocahontas, from 1865 to 1869. Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea are on dollar coins.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, who is sponsoring legislation to put a woman on the $20 bill, praised Lew for his decision to put a woman on the $10.
“While it may not be the $20 bill, make no mistake,” Shaheen said. “This is a historic announcement.”
the word is that he is putting his mother-in-law on it in return for some peace and quiet in his house.
Offer it to Hillary in exchange for her pulling out of the pres race.
Marilyn Monroe
They should put Mary Jo Kopechne on the bill. Giving up her life prevented Ted Kennedy from becoming President.
Caitlyn Jenner………
They shouldn’t put a woman on any bill, women have the ability to make money disappear!
I hope this sparks a major redesign. We can certainly do better than the drab bills we have now.
Golda Meir
Chaya Mushka
Miss Liberty
Leona Helmsley
You probably never heard of her.
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT. Friend to working families, the downtrodden, fought segregation, forced Truman to deal with DP’S languishing in camps after WW2, established the UN, fought for human rights, supported birth of Israel.
Bruce jenner
Bunch of minuvals commenting here, except for #13 . Shame on all of you.
If there is a picture of a woman on the $10 bill, it might be assured in some circles
Hillary Clinton. They can save money by using the picture of her in the White House that was cut out in the frum newspapers.
This would cause much damage to all chareidi cash businesses since they won’t accept cash with a woman’s picture on it
Does this mean we won’t be able to use $10 bills anymore?
Will the Hamodia not show a picture of the new design?
I wanted to nominate MYSELF, but my HUSBAND asks
“are you not more worth than a $10.00 bill”
What a compliment… So I am OUT
No Derek the perfect 10
Haven’t there only been presidents on dollar bills to date? I don’t think there’s ever been a woman president…….yet
Anyone but Michelle Obama
I agree with #8 ; Golda Meir was still an American citizen, when she was Prime Minister of Israel. At that time, EY did not have any laws requiring American citizens to renounce their citizenship, if they held political office in Israel. To date, she is the only female American citizen, to become head of state of a foreign nation.
If Lew is a yid, lets suggest a REBBE be put on the $10 bill.
Harriet Tubman – a pro gun republican who won the recent popularity contest.
Plus you get a two-fer, a desirable attribute in all affirmative action hires.
Seriously, don’t women find it offensive that they will chose someone based on gender not qualifications? Isn’t that a message that women are unqualified and need men to give them special consideration?
Anyway, on the subject of qualified black women, Condalizza Rice is a great choice.
But you object she was a war monger. So there is Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to congress (not black, but nobody’s perfect). A pacifist who opposed U.S. entry into WW2.
OK, OK, but you say you want a Democrat. After all, this is an Affirmative action appointment! So there is Hattie Caraway. But she fillibustered FDR’s antilynching bills, because she was a true Southern Democrat on racial issues.
Choices, choices.
Anyway, why not actual do this thing on merit? But then Alexander Hamilton wouldn’t be going anywhere – the guy invented the financial system that creates all the paper money! The $20, with its lawless genocidal president on the front is a good choice to replace, or the $50 with its antisemitic President (who when he was a general refused to allow Jews to be in his command). These are people America might legitimately downgrade in importance.
They’re going to go with Susan B Anthony, they just wanted us to feel included.
My guess is that it will be Rosa Parks.