The U.S. Treasury's decision to add a woman to the $10 bill has drawn applause for the long-overdue move -- but also sadness from fans of the country's first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton.
To mollify the Hamiltonians, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew emphasized what seemed like a good compromise: Putting both Hamilton and a woman on the bill. It seemed a suitable outcome, especially given that Hamilton was a huge advocate for women. (Hamilton was so irresistible to the ladies in his day that Martha Washington wryly named her overly affectionate tomcat Hamilton).
The option of a space-sharing agreement between Hamilton and a heroic American woman was widely reported -- but sad to say, it is misleading.
"Mr. Hamilton will remain on the bill in a diminished way," the Wall Street Journal wrote, likely to the relief of Hamilton-revering readers.
Speculation spread that half of the $10 bills would feature Hamilton, or that he would be facing a woman.
This is completely wrong, a person familiar with the matter tells us.
"There are a number of ways he could be preserve on the $10 but the portrait itself would be a woman," a source familiar with the options told Mashable.
In fact, Hamilton would be so diminished on the bill that he would be nearly invisible. You would have to be a robot with bionic eyes to see Hamilton on the bill after a woman is added.
Here's why: One option is to keep Hamilton as a watermark against counterfeiting, where his face will only show up if the bill is held up to the light or checked by a special pen.
The other option is to point people to take a magnifying glass to the engraved drawing of a Treasury building pictured on the $10 bill. A small statue of Alexander Hamilton stands in front of the actual building. That means Hamilton will stay on the $10 bill in minuscule form -- about two pixels high, a shadow of his former glory.
The idea of keeping Hamilton as a watermark may be less than satisfying symbolically, but it does bring the newly hip statesman -- also the star attraction of a popular Broadway show named after him -- closer to the real reason for the whole redesign in the first place. That is, to thwart counterfeiters.