Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is close to announcing a decision on who will be the first woman for more than a century to be in the US paper currency. Whilst the woman will be in the next portrait of the $10 bill, Alexander Hamilton will still be honored.
"Alexander Hamilton is one of my heroes. He's not leaving our money," Lew said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on the Charlie Rose program, as quoted by ABC News.
CNBC reported that supporters of Hamilton, including new fans that are attracted by the hit Broadway musical "Hamilton" organized a campaign to convince Lew not to remove Hamilton's portrait from the $10 bill.
Lew did not say how he planned to honor Hamilton as part of modernizing the nation's currency.
The $10 bill was the first in a series of bills that will be redesigned as part of the government's effort to keep the U.S currency safe from counterfeiting. Lew said that there were plans to redesign the $5 bill and $20 bill. Hamilton's supporters suggested that instead of replacing Hamilton's portrait on the $10 bill; the nation's first treasury secretary Andrew Jackson should be removed from the $20 bill.
Lew said that he needs to follow the sequence that has been established by the government experts for the redesign program.
He also stated in an interview broadcast by PBS, "We have to value security in our currency. So, we're going to have to do this in the order that bills need to be modernized to be safe from counterfeiting."
Last June, Lew announced that he was going to put a woman on the $10 bill. He asked for suggestions about which woman should be selected and as well as proposals on how the currency should be redesigned, sparking quite a debate.
The decision was scheduled to be announced by the end of last year; however it was postponed to give the treasury time to process all the responses.
"We've gotten millions of responses. We're getting close," Lew said. "We're going to announce it soon."
While the debate was more focused on the portrait, Lew said that the redesign would go much further and include the buildings and monuments illustrated on the reverse side of the bill as well.
"This is not just about one square inch of one bill," Lew said. "We're looking at how do we take these buildings that are on the back of our bills and bring them to life."
Lew lobbied the currency redesign earlier this month by the author and star of "Hamilton" Lin-Manuel Miranda, during a meeting at the Treasury.
After the discussion, Miranda tweeted that Lew had assured her she was going to "be very happy" with the decision.
Lew had given Miranda a brief tour of the Treasury that included the viewing of some of Hamilton's possessions and the portrait of Hamilton that hangs in Lew's office.
