Poll: Americans Want Eleanor Roosevelt’s Face On New $10 Bill

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(Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie)

Although we won’t find out which historic woman the U.S. Treasury Department will choose for a new $10 bill until later this year, a new poll says Americans already know who they want sharing face time with Alexander Hamilton: The nation’s longest-serving first lady, as well as an activist, diplomat and politician, Eleanor Roosevelt.

While the Treasury is currently seeking input from citizens on who should grace the new bills, slated for release in 2020, a new poll from McClatchy-Marist says 27% of registered voters who participated chose Roosevelt.

Other contenders included abolitionist Harriet Tubman (who was also the top suggestion in a previous campaign for a $20 bill featuring a woman) with 20% of the vote, Native American guide Sacagawea with 13%, pilot Amelia Earhart and suffragette Susan B. Anthony, each with 11% of the vote. Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female justice of the Supreme Court, received 4% — but even if she was the top choice, the Treasury has stipulated that no living woman can appear on the redesigned $10 bill.

“They had a lot to do with building this country, as much as the men did. And still do,” said one man from Georgia who took the poll.

The new bill will mark the first time in more than 100 years that a female face has appeared on paper currency in the U.S.: previously, Martha Washington and Pocahontas both appeared on bills in the 1800s, while Anthony and Sacagawea have been featured on the $1 coin in the past.

The Treasury chose 2020 for the release of the new bill, to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist