Jane Austen to appear on £10 note
Howard Lake | 25 July 2013 | News
Author Jane Austen is to appear on the reverse of £10 notes, according to Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney. The new design is expected to appear in 2017, within a year of the new £5 notes which will feature Sir Winston Churchill.
The choice of Sir Winston Churchill, replacing social reformer Elizabeth Fry, would have meant that Bank of England bank notes would all have featured only men, apart of course from the image of the sovereign.
Given the concerns raised about an all-male line-up, the Bank of England has also undertaken to review its approach to and criteria for selecting significant British characters to appear on banknotes.
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The Austen £10 will feature a quotation from Pride and Prejudice, in which Miss Bingley says: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”
The Bank of England started featuring historical figures on the reverse of its bank notes in 1970.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer referred to the campaign for more women figures on bank notes in his tweet:
Mark Carney’s choice of Jane Austen as face of £10 note is great. After understandable row over lack of women, shows sense and sensibility
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) July 24, 2013
Not surprisingly, other Twitter users replied mentioning ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
Why was Austen chosen?
Chris Salmon, Chief Cashier, explains the Bank of England’s choice of Jane Austen, and gives details of the design to be used.
Austen choice to benefit women’s charities
A campaign to challenge in court the Bank of England’s decision not to include women on its banknotes raised £13,000 in donations. This money will now be donated to women’s charities, including Rape Crisis.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.