Jane Austen takes pride of place on Britain's new plastic £10 note

Women in period costume pose with one of the Bank of England's new £10 note, during its unveiling at Winchester Cathedral, July 18, 2017Credit: Getty Images

Winchester: The Bank of England unveiled its first plastic £10 note on Tuesday, which features 19th-century British novelist Jane Austen and will be available to the public from September.

The central bank has printed an initial run of a billion of the new notes, which are known in Britain as "tenners", after last year's launch of a £5 note made from a polymer film that the BoE said is more durable and harder to forge.

The note was released to coincide with the 200th anniversary of Austen's death.

Austen will be the only woman – apart from the Queen – to appear on a modern British banknote, after the old £5 note that featured Elizabeth Fry was withdrawn in May, according to London's Daily Telegraph. The paper fiver, as it is affectionately known, was replaced with a polymer note featuring Sir Winston Churchill. Florence Nightingale was pictured on the 1975 £10 note.

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 £1000 ($1640) would mean to us today," BoE Governor Mark Carney said at the launch of the new note in Winchester.

The new £10 note, featuring Jane Austen.Credit: Getty Images

Austen received a £10 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".

The quotation came from a character who in fact had no interest in books and was merely trying to impress a potential suitor. It drew a mix of amusement and criticism in the media when it appeared on an initial design of the note in 2013.

Carney defended the choice on Tuesday.

"It captures much of her spirit, at least in my mind," he said. "It draws out some of the essence of some of her social satire and her insight into people's character. So it works on multiple levels."

Extinction looms for Darwin

With tactile features to make it easier for blind people to identify, the BoE says each new £10 note should last for around five years, compared to around two years for the paper note it is replacing.

Existing £10 notes, which feature the scientist Charles Darwin, will cease to be legal tender during the first half of next year.

Rolling out the new plastic notes has not been without its problems. The five pound note released last year drew criticism from vegetarians and some religious groups for containing trace amounts of animal fats - something which will also be the case for the new £10 note.

The BoE is working to find an alternative production method in time for when it launches a new £20 note in 2020.

Reuters