Who should appear on the new $10 bill?

Historical icon Betsy Ross or jazz great Billie Holiday? Actress/princess Grace Kelly or opera star Marian Anderson?

Who fits the $10 bill?

Why not vote a favorite local daughter onto the redesigned ten-spot? Since Philadelphia is the birthplace of American governance - see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall - let's make sure she represents all of youse. Us, that is.

America's new bill, scheduled to be unveiled in 2020, will honor "a woman who has contributed to and represents the values of American democracy," Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said last week.

Its launch will coincide with the 100th anniversary of U.S. women gaining the right to vote, an enduring dividend of the women's rights movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

An enduring legacy of the U.S. economy? American women's wages haven't kept pace with men's - U.S. women earn only 77 cents for every $1 that men earn.

So, in reality, a woman will soon adorn the $7.70 bill.

It's high time we joined the ranks of countries recognizing women on their paper currency. (Remember the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollar coins? Barely, right?)

But according to U.S. Treasury guidelines, the Ten-Dollar Woman can't be living, which strikes locals Joan Jett, Patti LaBelle, Anna Quindlen, and Blythe Danner (Gwyneth Paltrow's mom).

We combed through historical figures from this region and came up with a starter sorority that also includes feminist Alice Paul, a leader of the women's suffrage movement; anthropologist Margaret Mead; St. Katharine Drexel, a philanthropist, educator, and religious leader; and actress Ethel Barrymore, of the theater and Hollywood dynasty.

To see more of the discussion, visit the Treasury's special website, https://thenew10.treasury.gov, or voice your opinion using the Twitter hashtag #TheNew10.

"I'm excited that using the technology that's available to us, we can hear from the public," Lew told Reuters.

National figures up for consideration include abolitionist Harriet Tubman, civil rights activist Rosa Parks, and former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Representing women in finance, what about Madam C.J. Walker, the United States' first self-made female millionaire?

This redesign won't come cheap, according to figures provided by the Federal Reserve Bank Board of Governors.

Consider that the current $10 note design was put into circulation in 2006 and was reflected in the Federal Reserve Board's print order for 2005. Print cost for a single note was 7.6 cents. The cost for the entire 2005 print order was $278.2 million.

To compare, in 2004 the cost to produce a single $10 note (with an old design) was 6.5 cents, and the entire print order cost $69.6 million.

(Locally, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has a permanent exhibit, "Money in Motion," that is free to the public and features different coins and currency throughout history. Tour in person at the Fed's Center City headquarters or visit via www.philadelphiafed.org/education/money-in-motion/virtual-tour.)

Other nations are well-ahead of the U.S., women-on-currency-wise.

In 2013, the British central bank replaced evolution theorist Charles Darwin on the 10-pound note with 19th-century novelist Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice. Queen Elizabeth II, of course, already occupies a royal place on U.K. currency.

In Sweden, Selma Lagerlöf - the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature - graces the 20-kronor note and opera singer Jenny Lind the 50. In 2009, the Philippines redesigned the 500-peso note to include an image of Corazon Aquino, that country's first female president, alongside her husband, politician Benigno Aquino Jr.

A dozen other countries circulate currency depicting women, including Mexico, Syria, Somalia, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, South Korea, and Ukraine.

The Treasury Department will collect public input at town hall meetings, too. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing has scheduled "New $10" special events at which the public can share ideas or feedback with Lew as he weighs options for the redesign.

The closest event will take place in Washington, D.C., on July 15. There, you can meet with U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios and director Len Olijar at the bureau's office, 14th and C Streets SW.

Timed tours will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Registration for the event closes on July 13. For more information, call 866-874-2330.

Meanwhile, Philly, whom do you want in your wallet?

215-854-2808 @erinarvedlund