U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said on Wednesday that a woman will be featured on the new $10 bill in 2020; the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment of the Constitution which gave the women the right to vote, according to WESH Orlando.
A decision on who the woman will be will not be made for several months, according to WESH Orlando.
There has only ever been one woman on U.S. paper currency, first lady Martha Washington. Washington was on the $1 Silver Certificate between 1891 and 1896, according to WESH Orlando.
“We have only made changes to the faces on our currency a few times since bills were first put into circulation, and I’m proud that the new 10 will be the first bill in more than a century to feature the portrait of a woman,” Lew said, according to WESH Orlando.
Lew is asking the public for help choose who the woman will be via the hashtag #TheNew10 on social media. Lew wants the next generation of U.S. currency to emphasize American democracy, according to WESH Orlando. The portrait must also be, by law, of someone who is no longer living.
Hamilton was first on the $10 in 1929 after he replaced Andrew Jackson. Jackson is now on the U.S. $20 bill.
Bills are normally updated for security reasons, Lew said, according to WESH Orlando.
Lew said, according to WESH Orlando, that Hamilton will still remain on the new version of the $10 bill. Whether he will be alongside the woman or the centerpiece has not been determined.
The new $10 will also have a “tactile feature” that will allow blind people to differentiate it from other denominations, according to WESH Orlando.
