U.K. rolls out plastic Austen bank note

LONDON — A new plastic 10-pound note featuring British author Jane Austen has gone into circulation.

Apart from the Queen, whose portrait is on all U.K. currency, Austen is only the third woman to be featured on a modern-day British bank note, after medical innovator Florence Nightingale and social reformer Elizabeth Fry. She was chosen after a campaign for more female representation.

The new “tenner,” as it’s commonly known, is the first British bank note with a tactile feature, a series of raised dots in the top left-hand corner to help blind and partially sighted users.

The note is made of polymer and is the central bank’s latest effort to make cash harder to counterfeit, after last year’s launch of a similar 5-pound note that showcases Winston Churchill. A new 20-pound note featuring artist JMW Turner will follow in 2020.

“Our bank notes serve as repositories of the country’s collective memory, promoting awareness of the United Kingdom’s glorious history and highlighting the contributions of its greatest citizens,” said Bank of England Governor Mark Carney. “Austen’s novels have a universal appeal and speak as powerfully today as they did when they were first published.”

Austen, whose novels include Pride and Prejudice,

Emma, and Sense and Sensibility, is considered one of the great chroniclers of English country life in the Georgian era at the turn of the 19th century. Combining wit, romance and social commentary, her books have been adapted numerous times for television and film.