In five years, you are getting new money. Who knows if you will have more money, but definitely you are getting new money, because the 2020 version of the $10 bill will feature the picture of a noteworthy American woman.

The question is whom to honor.

Hawaii’s U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono is looking forward to the debate. Earlier this month, Hirono joined fellow women senators to write President Barack Obama, asking for the U.S. Treasury to start the process to put a picture of a woman on the $20 bill.

Last week, the Treasury announced it will put a woman’s likeness on the $10 bill in time for the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Hirono had the perfect candidate: former U.S. Rep. Patsy T. Mink.

"I would like to see a woman of color on the $10 bill," Hirono said in an interview.

"I think it is great to put a woman on it, and Patsy stands for equality," she said.

A nonpartisan grassroots group, Women on 20s, started the campaign, which featured an online poll to suggest candidates.

Harriet Tubman was an escaped slave who became one of the country’s leaders against slavery, even leading a raid in 1863 that freed 700 slaves in South Carolina. Tubman had the most online votes — 118,328 — but other prominent American women also placed high in the scoring, including Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Wilma Mankiller. Mink garnered 11,676 votes.

The campaign’s description of Mink noted: "She was the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress. Later she was the first Asian-American to run for U.S. President."

Hirono, writing in Politico Magazine, said Mink’s passage of the federal Title IX legislation "has given millions of female students and athletes a fair shot to compete in school and on the playing field, and it has fundamentally transformed our society by creating a fair and inclusive education system."

Maui state Sen. Roz Baker also favors Mink.

"We should have more women on our currency. Rep. Mink would get my vote. She’s been a trailblazer and champion for equal educational opportunity for women and girls and some much more. And she’s from Maui," Baker said.

Hirono, with more than a little exasperation in her voice, said that, first of all, it is more than time for a woman’s picture to grace American currency, and, second, Mink is the perfect one to be represented.

"It is about time," Hirono said. "It shows continuing progress for woman and clearly I would like to see a woman of color."

The argument for a woman of color, or a woman deeply involved in civil rights, has a lot going for it.

The current dude on the $10 bill, Alexander Hamilton, one of the nation’s founding fathers, was against slavery. A recent New York Times column, however, noted that not only are all the gentlemen on today’s U.S. currency white men, half of them were slave owners.

Ten countries, including New Zealand, Syria and Mexico, already have pictures of women on their currency.

The real issue for American currency may not be which woman to feature — but why just one?

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com.