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Update: The Treasury Department released details of the plan this afternoon; see here for more.
Original:
Adios Andrew, and good riddance.
CNN reported earlier this week that Alexander Hamilton will stay on the front of the $10 bill, and a woman will replace Andrew Jackson on the face of the $20 bill. Now Politico and the New York Times, both citing unnamed Treasury officials, report that the woman is Harriet Tubman. The announcement is slated for today.
And there are more changes underfoot. The back of the $10 bill will include leaders of the women’s suffrage movement, while the $5 bill will also depict civil rights leaders, according to the report.
The Treasury Department announced last summer that an update to the $10 bill would feature a woman “who was a champion for our inclusive democracy,” prompting almost immediate concern for Hamilton’s fate (including from the playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda) and questions about why Jackson would remain on U.S. currency.
As the Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri put it earlier this week:
It only took a year of indignation, a blockbuster musical about the former treasury secretary that became a national phenomenon (who saw that coming?), and lots of impassioned thinkpieces to accomplish what the #Womenon20s movement knew was the right call from the start…
[Hamilton] was flawed — who isn’t? — but when you pull out his face from your pocket to pay for a sandwich you don’t cringe the way you do with Andrew “Trail of Tears” Jackson.
A treasury official confirmed to CNBC that Tubman is replacing Jackson on the $20, but didn’t let on about Hamilton’s fate.
Rachel Sadon