Brits have less than one month to spend their old paper £10 notes. The notes will cease to be legal tender in the UK on 1 March, and will no longer be accepted in shops, restaurants and other retailers. However, anyone left with the outdated notes following the spending deadline will be able to swap them for the new polymer note at their bank, building society, post office or Bank of England. They may be required to present ID, such as a passport or driving licence, to make the switch.
The new plastic £10 notes featuring an image of Jane Austen went into circulation on 14 September, and like the new £5 note, they are made using polymer. The notes are expected to last around five years – two-and-a-half times longer than paper notes - and have increased security features which makes them harder to counterfeit. They also have a tactile feature developed with the help of the Royal Society of the Blind in order to help blind and partially-sighted people.
The new £10 note entered circulation in September 2017
Jane Austen features on the new notes, with the design formally unveiled on 18 July 2017, the 200th anniversary of her death. "There can be no better place to unveil the new £10 banknote, featuring Jane Austen, and there can be no better time than today, the 200th anniversary of her death," Bank of England governor Mark Carney said at the launch.
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The new notes also follow the launch of the 12-sided £1 coin in March 2017, which has been hailed "the most secure coin in the world". It contains a hidden high-security feature built into it to protect it from counterfeiting. The Bank of England will release a new plastic £20 note in 2020, but there are currently no plans to update the £50 note.