A new £10 banknote celebrating Jane Austen has entered circulation and will start to show up in people’s pockets in the coming days and weeks. How does your new £10 note measure up? The new tenner is the first Bank of England banknote with a tactile feature to help blind and visually impaired users. The new tactile feature is a series of raised dots in the top left-hand corner of the banknote, developed with the help of the RNIB.
Like the £5 note already in circulation featuring Sir Winston Churchill, the new £10 banknote featuring Pride And Prejudice author Austen is made from polymer. Just over one billion polymer £10 notes have been printed ready for issue and they will start to appear in wallets as the notes leave cash centres around the U.K. and enter general circulation.
The new banknotes are expected to last at least two-and-a-half times longer than the current paper £10 notes, around five years in total, and stay in better condition during day-to-day use. People can continue to spend the existing paper £10 notes for now. They will be phased out gradually as they are banked. Legal tender status of the paper £10 featuring Charles Darwin will eventually be withdrawn in spring 2018. The exact date will be announced at least three months in advance. A new £20 note featuring artist JMW Turner will follow in 2020.