Andrew Jackson getting booted off $20, CNN reports

By Joe O'Donnell

Published: Apr 18, 2016, 5 AM

Andrew Jackson's days on the $20 Federal Reserve note may be numbered, as a CNN report quotes a government source as saying Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will replace him with a woman instead of replacing Alexander Hamilton on the $10 note.

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Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father getting lots of attention in popular culture these days, may be staying on the $10 Federal Reserve note after all.

CNN is quoting a "senior government source" as saying that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will replace the portrait of Andrew Jackson on the $20 Federal Reserve note in the future with that of a woman, a move that would keep Hamilton where he currently resides on the $10 note.

Jackson became the target of the Women on 20s campaign that made headlines in 2015 as it sought to replace a president who was behind the mass relocation of Native Americans by way of what is commonly called the Trail of Tears.

Despite pressure to replace Jackson instead of Hamilton, Lew had until this report maintained that it was the $10 that needed design updates most, for security purposes, and that replacing Jackson was not what was being considered.

Disapproval of picking Hamilton to be replaced over Jackson resurfaced when the cast of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton met with Lew in an attempt to persuade the secretary to keep Hamilton, a Federalist who served as the first Treasury secretary and was behind the establishment of a central bank, on our money.

"Those pressures led Lew to determine that Hamilton should remain on the front of the bill," CNN reports. "Instead, a mural-style depiction of the women's suffrage movement — including images of leaders such as Susan B. Anthony — will be featured on the back of the bill."

Jackson, meanwhile, will be replaced on the $20 with a woman "representing the struggle for racial equality," according to CNN. CNN also reported that the new $20 note would not be placed into circulation any sooner than 2030, meaning that the goal of Women on 20s will not occur soon.

Underground Railroad pioneer Harriet Tubman was the leading vote-getter in Women on 20s' poll in 2015. Rosa Parks and Sojourner Truth were also among the poll's candidates with ties to the fight for racial equality.

Read the full story on CNN.com. Check back with Coin World for further coverage.

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