Andrew Jackson To Be Replaced On $20 Bill

Too bad for Andrew Jackson that the musical about his life wasn’t nearly as popular as the one about Alexander Hamilton.

CNNMoney reports that a groundswell of support to keep Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill — much of it bolstered by the phenomenal success of the hip-hop Broadway musical “Hamilton” that opened last summer — has compelled Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and the U.S. Treasury Department to change course on plans to replace the image of the former Treasury secretary on the bill with that of a woman. Instead, that change will occur on the $20 bill, with former President Andrew Jackson’s visage being replaced.

It has yet to be announced what female specifically will be featured on the face of the new $20 bill, but a government source told CNNMoney that it will be one who represents the struggle for racial equality.

The $10 bill will, the outlet notes, be undergoing a change, but that will occur on the back of the currency, in the form of a mural-style depiction including Susan B. Anthony and other historical figures who played a role in the women’s suffrage movement.

With CNNMoney expecting Lew to announce a formal decision confirming the change to the $20 bill this week, it shares a statement that the Treasury secretary recently made to CNBC: “When we started this conversation not quite a year ago, it wasn’t clear to me that millions of Americans were going to weigh in with their ideas. We’re not just talking about one bill. We’re talking about the $5, the $10 and the $20. We’re not just talking about one picture on one bill. We’re talking about using the front and the back of the bill to tell an exciting set of stories.”

As for a timeline on the release of the new currency, CNNMoney’s source told the outlet: “The soonest that a new $20 note will be issued is 2030.” That leaves time, the outlet notes, for a future Treasury secretary to potentially make a different decision.