Eleanor Roosevelt, our nation’s longest serving first lady, is Americans’ top pick for the soon-to-be redesigned $10 bill.
That’s according to a new poll from McClatchy-Marist, which found that 27 percent of Americans want Roosevelt’s face to either replace or share space with Alexander Hamilton.
Roosevelt, a revered activist, diplomat and politician, received more votes than other notable women, including: African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman (20 percent), Native American guide Sacagawea (13 percent), pilot Amelia Earhart (11 percent), suffragette Susan B. Anthony (11 percent), and former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor (4 percent).
Although Roosevelt was the favorite of both men and women in the polling, African-Americans preferred Tubman by wide margins.
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced in June that a woman would be the new face of the $10 bill. The new currency will be released in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the Constitution’s 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
Lew is expected to make a decision later this year on who will be the face of the new $10 bill.
The last woman to be featured on paper currency in the United States was Martha Washington, who appeared on the $1 Silver Certificate between 1891 and 1896. Pocahontas also appeared on paper notes in the 1800s, while Anthony and Sacagawea each made brief appearances on the $1 coin.
According to ABC, not everyone is excited at the prospect of Hamilton sharing his space or being replaced on the $10 note. Sixty-four lawmakers have asked Lew to keep Hamilton on the $10 bill and instead, replace former President Andrew Jackson, whose face appears on the $20 bill, with a notable woman.
“We find it disappointing that Alexander Hamilton, one of the most influential interpreters of the U.S. Constitution … and the founder of the nation’s financial system, will be removed from our currency,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Lew last week.
The lawmakers’ vision aligns with that of nonprofit Women on 20s, which started a grassroots campaign to remove Jackson from the $20 bill and replace him with a woman.
What do you think about featuring a woman on U.S. paper currency? Which woman would you choose? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.
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