From a kite to Alexander Hamilton: The bizarre evolution of the $10 bill

That sound you hear? That's the roar of thousands of diehard Hamilton fans celebrating the fact that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will be giving President Andrew Jackson the boot from the $20 to replace him with Harriet Tubman. Alexander Hamilton — whose reign on the $10 had been on the chopping block since Lew announced he was considering replacing the Founding Father with a woman on the redesigned bill — will live to see another transaction yet.

The decision to keep Hamilton around could be credited to a number of things — not the least of which is the fact that Jackson is in more glaring a need of replacement, seeing as his legacy includes signing the devastating Indian Removal Act, supporting slavery, and opposing a national paper currency.

But for the first time in American history, a musical played a major part in determining the future of the U.S. currency. Before rising to his current popularity thanks to the success of the eponymous musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton had been a sort of outsider on the American bills. "For a long time, Hamilton was a misunderstood and overlooked figure, consigned to a curious limbo. Among the major founders, he was, aside from Ben Franklin, the one who never made it to the White House and therefore lacked the reverent attention we bestow on presidents," biographer Ron Chernow has said. No wonder Lew had looked to the $10 for a dusting off.

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In its earliest iterations, the $10 featured Abraham Lincoln, Meriweather Lewis and William Clark in the company of a bison, Pocahontas, and Benjamin Franklin flying a kite. Coincidentally, Hamilton's portrait was once a replacement for Jackson's on the $10. Jackson was first put on the bill in 1914 (and again, during the redesign in 1923). But in 1929, the U.S. changed all of its currency to the current size and instated Alexander Hamilton on the $10, where he has remained ever since.

While Hamilton is here to stay, in the coming years he will be joined for the first time by a companion, according to Lew. Leaders of the women's right to vote movement will be featured on Hamilton's flip side.