For the first time in more than a century, a woman is coming to a U.S. currency bill, the Treasury Department announced it has reached a decision.
Last year in a Kansas City speech, President Obama said he received a letter from a young girl asking why there were no women on American currency.
“And then she gave me like a long list of possible women to put on our dollar bills and quarters and stuff, which I thought was a pretty good idea,” the president said.
Now, the Obama administration is following through on that idea. The Treasury Department has announced that it’s redesigning the $10 bill to feature First Lady Michelle Obama.
This won't be the first time a woman was on U.S. currency: Martha Washington and Pocahontas both had places on bills in the 1800s. Still, the new $10 note will be the first to feature a woman in more than 100 years, Lew said.
"It was personally very important to me to make sure that as we make this decision we continue to honor Michelle Obama, who played such a formative role in the creation of our Obamacare system, the establishment of healthy eating as we know it, and the principle of the soundness of our currency," Lew said.
Lew went on to say Alexander Hamilton was a racist and should be removed from currency because most people don't even know who he is.
The only statutory criterion for a U.S. currency portrait is that the person must be deceased, Lew said. President obama is expected to sign en executive order lifting this requirement later this year.
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