Bye-Bye, Andrew Jackson—the Treasury Department Is Putting a Woman on the $20 Bill
Ready your wallet: Your money is getting a makeover.
As you might recall, last year the Treasury department announced it would replace the image of Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill with a portrait of a woman who helped shape U.S. history. However, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is expected to announce plans this week to instead replace the image of the nation's seventh president, Andrew Jackson, on the $20 bill with a portrait of a woman. According to a government source, the new bill will honor the struggle for equal rights and racial equality. As for the $10, the Treasury Department will keep Hamilton on the bill and redesign the reverse side, replacing the likeness of the treasury building with a mural-style image of the woman's suffrage movement.
We're not saying that the hit Broadway musical Hamilton is behind this decision, but we're not not saying that. The success of the hip-hop smash hit helped buoy the pro-Hamilton movement that urged the Treasury Department to keep the first secretary of the Treasury on the $10.
With Lew's announcement, women who have shaped this country's history for the better will finally be recognized on our currency. Not only that, they will replace one of the most controversial presidents to ever hold office—a man who sanctioned one of the most devastating and despicable periods in United States history.
And, to be completely superficial, the best-looking man on U.S. currency (sorry, Ben Franklin) will remain in place.
As exciting as the news is, U.S. currency won't be changing overnight. Because the Treasury Department needs to take extensive measures with the updated designs to prevent counterfeiting, the earliest a new $20 would enter circulation is 2030—just in time to mark the historical 110th anniversary of the 19th Amendment.