新美元将出现女性头像

President Barack Obama has endorsed a young girl's suggestion to feature a woman on printed US currency. But what does it take to get a new face on a $5, or even $50 bill, asks Debbie Siegelbaum.

Betsy Ross, Amelia Earhart, and Rosa Parks could all be contenders for appearing on US currency.

First, it helps to be a titan of American history, like former presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson, or founding fathers Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.

The current Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for selecting the lucky few featured on US bills, and though the bills have been frequently redesigned for security purposes, the famous faces on them have remained the same since 1929.

That's when a special treasury committee selected them due to their "permanent familiarity in the minds of the public", according to the US Department of the Treasury.

Thanks to one 19th Century upstart, one also must be dead to appear on a bill.

"Some lowly clerk put his image on currency during the Civil War," says currency expert Frederick Bart. "People decided he had no right to be there, so that changed our laws forever."

Though acclaimed women such as suffragette Susan B Anthony and Native American guide Sacagawea have appeared alongside men on US coins, only one has ever graced a printed US bill.

That singular honour goes to the nation's first first lady, Martha Washington.

Mrs Washington was featured alone on the face of the $1 silver certificate in 1886. Ten years later, she was moved to the back of the bill and featured next to her husband, George, with the roman numeral I between them.

It may be years until a woman makes it onto a bill again, says Bart. She would have to have a major political impact, such as assuming the presidency, and then die in order to even be considered, he says.

Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, says the time to see women represented on US currency is now. She says abolitionists Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman or politicians Bella Abzug and Shirley Chisholm already, in a manner of speaking, fit the bill.

美国总统奥巴马采纳了一个小女孩的建议，决定将一位女性的头像印到美元上。黛比·西格尔伯姆（Debbie Siegelbaum）问道：将一个全新的面孔印到5元或50元的钞票上需要什么条件。

贝琪·罗斯（Betsy Ross）、阿梅莉亚·玛丽·埃尔哈特（Amelia Earhart）、罗莎·帕克斯（Rosa Parks）都是出现在美元上的候选人。

首先，它必须是美国历史上一位成就非凡的人，如美国前总统乔治·华盛顿（George Washington）、亚伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln）、安德鲁·杰克逊（Andrew Jackson）或者开国元勋本杰明·富兰克林（Benjamin Franklin）和亚历山大·汉密尔顿（Alexander Hamilton）。

时任财政部部长负责选取有幸出现在美元中的人，尽管出于安全的考虑要经常重新设计美元纸币，但美元上的名人头像从1929年开始就没有换过。

美国财政部（the US Department of the Treasury）表示，那时一个特殊的财政委员选择他们作为纸币新头像的候选人，因为他们被视为“永远为人们所熟知的人”。

多亏了19世纪那个自命不凡的人，一个人必须是去世之后才有资格出现在美元上。

货币专家弗迪雷克·巴特（Frederick Bart）说道：“在南北战争时期，某个低级职员把他们自己的头像印到钞票上。人们一致决定他没有权力这么做，于是法律永远被改变。”

尽管呼声很高的女性如妇女参政权论者苏珊·B·安东尼（Susan B Anthony）和印第安探险家莎卡嘉微亚（Sacagawea）等都曾随男性一起出现在美元硬币上，但她们中只有一个人有幸单独出现在美元上。

这个人就是美国第一位第一夫人玛莎·华盛顿（Martha Washington）。

华盛顿夫人的头像单独出现在1886年发行的1元银元券上。10年之后她的头像被移到了纸币的背面，和她的丈夫乔治共同出现，他们头像之间印着罗马数字1。

巴特说，可能要过很多年以后才会再次把女性头像印到美元上。她将需有重大的政治影响力，比如成为总统，而且她得先去世才有资格被印到美元上。

国家妇女组织（the National Organization for Women）主席特里·奥尼尔（Terry O'Neill）表示，现在正是再次见到女性出现在美元上的时机。她表示，不妨说，废奴主义者索洁娜·特鲁斯和哈丽特·塔布曼或者政治家贝拉·阿伯格和雪莉·齐泽姆已经很适合出现在美元上了。