It’s been a long time since a woman’s face was seen on U.S. currency. Martha Washington was on the U.S. $1 silver certificate in the 1880s and 1890s, but since then, it’s been all men.

Suddenly, the U.S. Treasury is in a rush to put another woman on U.S. currency. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew has said the $10 bill will be redesigned and will feature a woman’s picture replacing the current portrait of Alexander Hamilton.

We think taking Hamilton off the $10 bill would be a shame. Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, is widely regarded as one of the most capable and influential of the founding fathers, trusted aide to General George Washington, main author of the Federalist Papers and architect of the federal economic and banking system. It would be an insult to remove his image.

But women should definitely be represented by someone. There is growing sentiment to replace President Andrew Jackson on the $20. Jackson actually vetoed and dismantled the federal bank system, which later re-emerged as the Federal Reserve System, and he is disliked by many for his enforcement of the Indian Removal Act, which led to the forced relocation of thousands of Indians to the west side of the Mississippi River.

We feel the $20 bill would be a better place to re-introduce a woman.

Who will she be? What great woman’s face will be seen regularly by virtually every American in the future – every time they reach into their wallets and purses and pull out a bill?

Any number of possibilities come to mind: Abigail Adams, Jane Addams, Clara Barton, Shirley Chisholm, Helen Keller, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Harriet Tubman are just a few possibilities.

Lew wants to get the public’s opinion and has invited Americans to submit suggestions for the woman to be honored on the new currency. That is appropriate – providing the decision is based on services to the nation and, possibly all humankind.

Political correctness and/or current popularity or notoriety should not influence the decision. The woman chosen should be someone who will be revered 100 years from now.