Image of dollar
Image of dollarReuters

Alexander Hamilton is being taken off the $10 bill and will be replaced, for the first time, by a woman, the United States Treasury announced on Wednesday. 

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said a woman will feature on a redesigned $10 bill to be issued in 2020 - to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. 

"We have only made changes to the faces on our currency a few times since bills were first put into circulation, and I'm proud that the new 10 will be the first bill in more than a century to feature the portrait of a woman," Lew announced.

While Lew has final decision on the chosen woman, he has asked the public to help through a social media project which will extend through the summer until the official announcement of the $10 bill's new face in the fall. 

Lew is looking for a woman who underscores the theme of American democracy, and who - by law - must no longer be alive. 

The last woman to appear on US paper currency was the nation's first First Lady, Martha Washington, who was on the $1 Silver Certificate from 1891 through 1896. 

Hamilton, the first treasury secretary of the US, has appeared on the $10 bill since 1929.