The recent speculation focusing on the design of the new $10 bill, set for 2020, has taken on a new, wider and more significant dimension according to a report in the Aug. 21 issue of USA Today.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew is quoted saying: “A lot of the debate has focused on one square inch of one bill, and that’s not where we intended the focus to be. It’s bigger than this one thing that’s going to happen to this one note.”

Lew was referring to the redesign of the next generation of bills after the $10 note, specifically the $5 and the $20 notes. The story stated that the future issues will be the most complete revision of currency designs in almost a hundred years, which would mean since the large-size note era ended. Included will be features to help the blind, apparently fewer architectural elements, and perhaps an assortment of individuals that extends beyond generals, presidents, and politicians. The future currency will revolve around the theme of democracy while implementing significant new and technologically advanced security features. Among the speculative musings, which Coin World readers have heard before, were that there could be more than one person on each note, and that there could be different designs of the same denomination.

Unlike the process for coins, paper money designs do not need congressional approval — they are strictly the purview of the secretary of the Treasury. Nonetheless, Lew is reaching out like none of his predecessors. Rather than relying on bureaucrats and bankers, he has asked for public comments, and the Treasury had received over a million such comments by the end of July.

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