Treasury Department to Put a Woman on the $10 Bill in 2020

[Tonitrus]

I've made my peace with a woman being on paper money at some point.  The irony of removing Hamilton is pretty galling, though.  And if they move forward with that Harriet Tubman proposal I swear that will give kids nightmares.  Don't get me wrong, she was an awesome lady and deserving of the recognition but Lord she had a face for radio.

Hannah Duston was a badass. First American woman to get a statue even.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Duston

That statue appears to have been well respected by the local hooligans.

[garbon]

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/hillary-clinton-criticizes-treasurys-plan-to-take-123582914681.html

Hillary Clinton criticizes Treasury's plan to take Alexander Hamilton off the $10 bill

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was critical of Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's decision to remove Alexander Hamilton from the $10 bill, suggesting in an interview this week that the better place to put a woman on U.S. currency would be the $20 bill.

"I think that it might be easier to change the 20 than it is to change the 10," Clinton told CNN on Tuesday.

Clinton left herself a little bit of wiggle room on the issue, hedging her criticisms of the Obama administration by saying, "We'll see," two different times. But it was clear that while she is supportive of the move to put a famous woman from American history on one of America's major denominations, she also is not enthusiastic about taking the nation's revered first Treasury secretary off the $10 bill.

The Treasury decision to move Hamilton off the $10 bill during its next redesign came in the wake of a campaign by a group called Women on 20s to put a woman on the $20 bill, and while it satisfied activist demands to diversify the figures featured on American currency, it prompted a new wave of controversy, as those who want to continue honoring Hamilton's legacy pushed back against the government's choice of the bill to alter.

"I am very torn about it. I want a woman on a bill. I don't know why they take the $10 bill. Some people are now agitated for the $20 bill," Clinton said.

Asked a second time, Clinton said, "It may be more appropriate to look at the 20 than the 10. I don't know. We'll see."

A loud chorus of critics greeted Lew's announcement last month that a woman would be placed on the $10 bill, arguing that a woman should be put on the $20 bill and that former President Andrew Jackson should be taken off that denomination rather than stripping Hamilton of his place on U.S. money.

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said he was "appalled" at Lew's decision. Even the advocacy group that has sparked a grassroots movement of sorts in favor of putting a woman on U.S. currency has said that the $20 bill is a better choice than the $10. "We targeted the $20 bill because it is a ubiquitous bill bearing the image of Andrew Jackson, known more today for his mistreatment of Native Americans, involvement in the slave trade and hatred of paper currency than any other aspect of his legacy. We had no desire to unseat the exemplary Alexander Hamilton, a visionary Founding Father who designed our monetary system," Women on 20s said in a statement.

But so far the Treasury Department has stood firm, saying that it may opt to have a woman share the $10 bill with Hamilton or that it may print two separate versions of the $10 bill.

Clinton rejected this idea as a bad option.

"I don't like the idea that as a compromise you would basically have two people on the same bill. One would be a woman. That sounds pretty second class to me," Clinton said. "So I think a woman should have her own bill."

Clinton's comments in favor of a woman having her own denomination are sure to play favorably with many voters, but it's also a way for her to subtly distance herself from the Obama administration.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Did you sleep through 2008?

Do you seriously think investment banks were well-regulated?

[Valmy]

Wanting to take the founder of the Democratic Party off the $20.00 bill eh? Bold move.

[garbon]

My kinda Dem.

[Tonitrus]

Far be it from me to back Hillary, but she is on the right side of this issue (actually, I might say a bit too waffle-ish on it, though).

[Razgovory]

Did you sleep through 2008?

Do you seriously think investment banks were well-regulated?

How would you know before hand?  If you do know, please identify the next banks to go under, that would be a real help for us here.

[crazy canuck]

Did you sleep through 2008?

Do you seriously think investment banks were well-regulated?

How would you know before hand?  If you do know, please identify the next banks to go under, that would be a real help for us here.

The problem was known and ignored.  Largely for ideological reasons. In the mid 1990s the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission was pushing for better regulation. People like Greenspan believed the market could take care of itself and blocked her efforts.  He was wrong of course.  Here is a link with more detail if you are interested.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warning/interviews/born.html

[Razgovory]

It would be more help if you could link me to banks that will go down in the future.

[crazy canuck]

It would be more help if you could link me to banks that will go down in the future.

[garbon]

Pretty awesome that they changed course - though dumping Jackson wholesale would probably be better.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-harriet-tubman-20-bill-20160420-story.html

Harriet Tubman is the next face of the $20 bill; $5 and $10 bills will also change

Harriet Tubman and President Andrew Jackson lived on opposite sides of the American experience.

Tubman, a black woman, escaped slavery to become a conductor on the Underground Railroad, risking her life to lead slaves to freedom. Jackson, the son of Scots-Irish immigrants and owner of slaves, was elected president as a war hero and became known for policies that led to the deaths of countless Native Americans.

Soon, though, the two will share prominent placement on a new $20 bill — with Tubman, the former slave, getting top billing.

On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said Tubman would replace Jackson on the front of the $20 bill, becoming the first woman in more than a century and first African American to grace the front of a paper note. Jackson will be featured on the back of the bill alongside an image of the White House.

In another twist, Alexander Hamilton got a reprieve. Initially targeted for replacement by a woman on the $10 bill, Hamilton's reputation was burnished by an unlikely smash Broadway play and his case pressed by outraged historians pointing to his seminal role in creating the nation's first central bank.

Treasury's announcement followed almost a year of heated public debate, shaped by social media and history alike.

Even former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke weighed in, pressing Hamilton's case on his blog. Bernanke wrote Wednesday that Tubman was an "excellent and deserving choice" while Hamilton had a better claim than any to stay on a bill.

Lew said the final concept designs of new $20, $10 and $5 bills are scheduled to be completed and unveiled by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Lew did not give a more specific timetable of when the bills would be released into circulation, saying only that he had directed the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to "work as quickly as possible" while making sure to meet security requirements for the bills that are the "first and foremost responsibility."

The first bill up for a remake is the $10, as part of Treasury's ongoing efforts to incorporate anti-counterfeiting technologies.

With Hamilton's position secure, and with the Obama administration under pressure to add diversity to the currency, Lew's compromise is to replace a picture of the Treasury building on the back of the $10 with leaders of the suffrage movement — Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and Lucretia Mott.

The back of the $5 bill will also be redesigned to include opera singer Marian Anderson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Some historians believe the flood of new faces on American currency could mark a shift in attitudes toward role models.

"Andrew Jackson is what we used to think of as a great American hero," said Brenda Stevenson, UCLA professor of history and African American studies. "He stood for the white, male political and economic elite, with great military honor associated with him.

"We have this woman who in many ways is just the complete opposite of Andrew Jackson, and it speaks volumes that we can recognize [Tubman] as this great American hero and image of what it means to be American."

Catherine Clinton, who wrote "Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom," said she was invited by the Smithsonian to a discussion about putting a woman on the $10 bill and gave a copy of her book to Lew and U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios.

"I felt that people needed to know how amazing her story was," she said. "She just wasn't a figure from the Underground Railroad, she just wasn't a self-emancipated slave, but she was a brave warrior in the fight against slavery. Harriet Tubman, I found, was such an important figure to so many because she represented the concept of one person making a difference."

The last time a woman was on a paper note was in the late 1800s, when First Lady Martha Washington appeared on the $1 silver certificate. Pocahontas was on the $20 bill from 1865 to 1869.

Lew's original plan to change the $10 — to have Hamilton share the bill with a woman, or release two different bills — met backlash from several directions.

Many said the only woman on the nation's paper currency should be featured alone on the bill, rather than sharing space with a man.

There were 8.6 billion $20 bills in circulation as of Dec. 31, 2015, compared with 1.9 billion $10 bills, according to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.

It helped Hamilton's case that "Hamilton," the play chronicling his life, became a breakout hit. In March, the play's creator and lead actor, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and other cast members met at the White House with Barack Obama.

Earlier this week, "Hamilton" also won a Pulitzer prize for best drama.

"He [Hamilton] launched the financial system, he straightened out the government's finances," said Richard Sylla, financial history professor at the NYU Stern School of Business. "A lot of the good things about American history were due to what Hamilton did as treasury secretary. I think Americans weren't quite aware of that."

In a call with reporters, Lew and Rios credited the outpouring of public response to the original plan and the call for suggestions.

"It was an evolutionary process," Lew said. "For me, personally, there was a kind of an 'aha' moment in July when it became clear that going bigger would give us the ability to tell more stories."

The last time a new portrait image appeared on a bill was between 1914 and 1928.

[celedhring]

With Hamilton's position secure, and with the Obama administration under pressure to add diversity to the currency, Lew's compromise is to replace a picture of the Treasury building on the back of the $10 with leaders of the suffrage movement — Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and Lucretia Mott.

The back of the $5 bill will also be redesigned to include opera singer Marian Anderson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

So will the 5$/10$ bills have different backs or are they going to group all those characters in a single bill? Sounds messy.

The Euroland bills are so plain with just bridges and arches. And they aren't even real ones.

[garbon]

Yeah it isn't clear from that blurb. I know once they had mentioned that they would have differing bills (when it was just front for 10) but who knows now.

[jimmy olsen]

With Hamilton's position secure, and with the Obama administration under pressure to add diversity to the currency, Lew's compromise is to replace a picture of the Treasury building on the back of the $10 with leaders of the suffrage movement — Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and Lucretia Mott.

The back of the $5 bill will also be redesigned to include opera singer Marian Anderson, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

So will the 5$/10$ bills have different backs or are they going to group all those characters in a single bill? Sounds messy.

The Euroland bills are so plain with just bridges and arches. And they aren't even real ones.

The suffragettes held a famous march that ended at the treasury IIRC, so a group for them.

[Josquius]

America 1-0 Britain on this one.
Not looking forward to encountering my first Churchill note in the wild.