The American $10 bill is to have a female facelift.
For the first time in US history, a woman’s face will appear on the banknote which has, since 1928, featured Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers and Treasury Secretary.
It is also the first time since 1886 a woman has been pictured on a greenback — in that year, George Washington briefly gave way to his wife Martha on the dollar bill.
The $10 bill is one of the heaviest in rotation, the US Treasury Department said and it has asked the public to suggest inspirational women.
Abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the 1850s, is one candidate. Civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and former first lady and poverty campaigner Eleanor Roosevelt would also be popular choices. The criteria are that the woman should reflect the theme of democracy and be dead.
“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,” Jacob Lew, Treasury Secretary said.
The new note will be printed in 2020 to mark the 100th anniversary of the US Constitution’s 19th amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
