The new £10 bank note featuring Jane Austen has come into circulation across England and Wales.
Austen is the only woman to be featured on an English bank note (apart from the Queen, of course), following the withdrawal of the old paper £5 notes featuring Elizabeth Fry in May.
The three Scottish issuing banks are also printing their next £10 notes on polymer and they'll be launched throughout the autumn.
- Clydesdale Bank – 21 September
- Royal Bank of Scotland – 4 October
- Bank of Scotland – 10 October
How long have I got to use the old notes?
Paper £10 notes, which feature Charles Darwin, are being phased out and will be withdrawn from circulation in Spring 2018. No official date has been announced yet.
Where can I get one?
The new notes will eventually be loaded into 48,000 cash machines, but only a handful currently have them.
One that definitely has them in stock is the one situated outside the Bank of England's headquarters on Threadneedle Street, London.
If you aren't in London, there are reports of ATMs stocking them at the following locations, but we can't verify their availability:
Birmingham
- HSBC, New Street
- Barclays, High Street
- NatWest, Grand Central
Cardiff
- Lloyds, Queen Street
Leeds
- HSBC, Park Row
- Cardtrocnis, Harrogate Road
- Yorkshire Bank, Briggate
Manchester
- NatWest, Spinningfield
- Barclays, St Anns Square
Any valuable ones?
Be on the lookout for rare £10 notes with very low serial numbers, like those beginning AA01.
Note that the Queen has already been given the very first note, which has the serial number AA01000001, while Prince Philip got the second and Theresa May bagged the third in the sequence.
Other popular serial numbers are expected to be Jane Austen's birthday, 16 121775, and the day of her death, 18 071817.
What does it look like?
In terms of size, the polymer note is smaller than the current one, but larger than the new polymer fiver. The official dimensions are 132mm x 69mm.
The note features a portrait of Jane Austen based on an engraving by William Home Lizars that was commissioned by her family and based upon an original sketch of Jane Austen drawn by her sister, Cassandra Austen.
It also displays an illustration of Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet undertaking “The examination of all the letters which Jane had written for her”, drawn by Isabel Bishop as well as an image of Godmersham Park, home to Jane Austen’s brother and Jane Austen’s writing table.
Controversy
The quote “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!” from Pride and Prejudice (Miss Bingley, Chapter XI) also appears on the new plastic note.
It has been at the centre of some lively debate as it doesn't come from from Austen herself. In fact, the quote is said by a character who uses it sarcastically as she doesn't even like reading.
On top of that, the note has been criticised because Austen appears to be airbrushed, looking more conventionally attractive and less drawn than the original painting of her in London's National Portrait Gallery.
And as with the polymer fiver, the £10 note has been under scrutiny for containing traces of animal fat.
Special features
The new £10 note is made of polymer to make it cleaner, safer and stronger.
It's the second polymer note to be launched in the UK, after the £5 Winston Churchill note entered circulation last September. A new plastic £20 will be released in 2020, but there are no plans to issue a plastic £50.
The new note comes with special security features making it harder to fake, including a quill which changes colour.
It also has three raised dots in the top left-hand corner, a tactile feature developed in conjunction with RNIB, as another element to help vision impaired people like the tiered sizing, bold numerals and raised print.
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This article has been updated