The story appears on

Page A12

June 19, 2015

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

HomeWorld

US to use a woman鈥檚 image on dollar bill

The US will put the image of a woman on an American banknote for the first time in over a century, breaking the lock that white male political heroes have on the greenback.

The US Treasury announced yesterday that a yet-unchosen woman, likely 鈥渁 champion for our inclusive democracy,鈥 will feature on the US$10 note from 2020, replacing Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury.

Only twice before have women featured on US paper currency.

Martha Washington, the wife of first president George Washington, was on US$1 notes in the 1880s and 1890s. Pocahontas, a Native American woman linked to the colonial settlement at Jamestown, was featured in a group of people on banknotes in the 1860s.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the woman on the new US$10 bill will be chosen by the Treasury after fielding the ideas of the public 鈥渁bout what qualities best represent democracy.鈥

Hinting at where the candidates will come from, Lew said the change will take place on the 100th anniversary of women鈥檚 suffrage, when American women gained the right to vote.

鈥淎merica鈥檚 currency is a way for our nation to make a statement about who we are and what we stand for. Our paper bills 鈥 and the images of great American leaders and symbols they depict 鈥 have long been a way for us to honor our past and express our values,鈥 said Lew.

Current US banknotes all feature familiar male figures from the country鈥檚 history.

Washington on the US$1, president Abraham Lincoln on the US$5, Hamilton on the US$10, president Andrew Jackson on the US$20, president and Civil War commander Ulysses S. Grant on the US$50, and inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin on the US$100. America鈥檚 third president, Thomas Jefferson, features on the infrequently used US$2 bill.


 

Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

娌叕缃戝畨澶 31010602000204鍙

Email this to your friend