“A better idea is to remove Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill and replace him with a distinguished woman from American history”

Treasury is proposing to put a woman’s portrait alongside Hamilton’s on the $10 bill, which is due for a redesign for anti-counterfeiting purposes. Jacob Lew, the Treasury secretary, is looking for a woman who “was a champion for our inclusive democracy” and the department will be taking suggestions on a website for the redesign. It is also holding public meetings, including one on July 15 in Washington. The new $10 is supposed to go into circulation in 2020.

There is good reason to keep Hamilton on the $10 bill. After all, he was the first Treasury secretary and the creator of the foundations of the American financial system. But there’s no reason to add another portrait to that bill.

A better idea is to remove Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill and replace him with a distinguished woman from American history. Jackson was a slave owner whose decisions annihilated American Indian tribes of the Southeast. He also hated paper currency and vetoed the reauthorization of the Second Bank of the United States, a predecessor of the Federal Reserve. Jackson is in the history books, but there’s no reason to keep him in our wallets.

“Take Jackson Off the $20 Bill”, New York Times (5 July 2015), SR8.