Sep 5, 2015 2 min read

Ten years after his death, Rolling Stone put Jim Morrison on its cover with the headline, “He’s hot, he’s sexy and he’s dead.”

We’re not sure about his sex appeal, but Alexander Hamilton is definitely hot right now and most assuredly dead. A mere 211 years after the founding father was felled by a bullet from the gun of Aaron Burr, Hamilton has re-entered the public consciousness thanks to the hit Broadway hip-hop musical “Hamilton,” and touring companies will almost certainly be on the road within a couple of years.

So it’s curious that, at this moment of keen appreciation for the first secretary of the treasury and architect of our country’s financial system, Hamilton is apparently on the verge of being booted from the $10 bill. The current treasury secretary, Jack Lew, announced earlier this summer a woman would be uprooting Hamilton from the sawbuck. So far, some of the potential replacements that were mentioned include abolitionist Harriet Tubman, suffragist Susan B. Anthony and the late first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Yes, a woman belongs on our paper currency. But should it be Hamilton who has to take a hike? How about Andrew Jackson, whose visage graces our $20 bill. While a champion of democracy and the common man, he also destroyed the country’s national bank and signed off on the brutal Trail of Tears, the forced relocation of American Indians which led to hundreds of deaths. Long considered one of our greatest presidents, historians now express that view with some reservations.

How about keeping Hamilton on the $10 bill, putting a woman on the $20 bill, and moving Jackson to one of the $1 coins that come around every once in a while? Just as long as he doesn’t uproot Sacagawea, the American Indian who was placed on a $1 coin in 2000.