The new plastic Jane Austen tenner will come into circulation this Thursday, September 14 – meaning time’s nearly up for the old paper ones.
The polymer note is the first British banknote with tactile information for blind and partially sighted people – and features author Jane Austen.
Austen knocks Charles Darwin off his slot on the note, and is now the only woman to feature on an English bank note, following the withdrawal of a paper £5 note featuring Elizabeth Fry.
When will old paper tenners stop being legal?
Existing 10 pound notes, which feature the scientist Charles Darwin, will cease to be legal tender during the first half of next year.
What’s so much better about the new notes?
The central bank has printed an initial run of a billion of the new notes, after last year’s launch of a five pound note made from a polymer film that the BoE said is more durable and harder to forge.
The Bank of England says each new 10 pound note should last for around five years, compared to around two years for the paper note it is replacing.
What’s on the design?
The notes mark the 200th anniversary of author Jane Austen’s death.
The writer was buried in Winchester Cathedral in 1817 and completed many of her best-known works such as ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Emma’ in the nearby village of Chawton.
‘Ten pounds would have meant a lot to Jane Austen, about the same as 1,000 pounds would mean to us today,’ BoE Governor Mark Carney said at the launch of the new note in Winchester.
Austen received a 10 pound publisher’s advance for her first novel and the new banknote bears a quotation ‘I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!’ from her later work, ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
Source: metro.co.uk
