New £10 note design unveiled
Melanie May | 19 July 2017 | News
The Bank of England unveiled the new polymer £10 note featuring Jane Austen yesterday (18 July), on the 200th anniversary of the author’s death.
The new £10 note follows the launch of the new £5 note last year, which raised millions for charity through the #firstfiver campaign, created by John Thompson. According to CAF estimates last November, #firstfiver raised up to £12.5m in its first few months of use through people donating the first new £5 note they received to charity.
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The new £10 design was revealed on 18 July at Winchester Cathedral, where the author is buried, and includes a portrait of Austen as well as a quote from Pride & Prejudice’s Miss Bingley: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”: a choice which sparked a number of comments following the announcement as she is a character known to have no interest in reading.
Smaller than the existing £10 note at 132mm x 69mm, it will be issued on 14 September 2017, followed by a new £20 note featuring painter JMW Turner in 2020, and is the first Bank of England banknote with a tactile feature to help blind and partially sighted users. This new feature is a series of raised dots in the top left-hand corner and has been developed in conjunction with the RNIB.
According to The Bank of England, the £10 note contains sophisticated security features that will make it very difficult to counterfeit. These include a quill at the side of the window which changes from purple to orange, a hologram which contains the word ‘Ten’ and changes to ‘Pounds’ when the note is tilted, and a hologram of the coronation crown which appears 3D and multi-coloured when the note is tilted.
It is expected to last at least 2.5 times longer than the current paper £10 notes – around five years in total – and stay in better condition during day to day use. The current Charles Darwin £10 note will be withdrawn in Spring 2018, with a date announced at least three months in advance.
More information on the new note is available on The New Ten website.
Watch: £5 Jane Austen note worth £50k donated to charity
- Jane Austen to appear on £10 note (25 July 2013)
- Darwin £10 note enters extinction on 1 March (12 February 2018)
- £5 Jane Austen note worth £50,000 donated to Children in Need (20 February 2017)
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.