Jane Austen 10-pound note launched in U.K.
LONDON — A new plastic 10pound note featuring Jane Austen, one of Britain’s most renowned authors, has gone into circulation.
Apart from the Queen, whose portrait is on all U.K. currency, Austen is only the third woman to feature on a modern-day British banknote, 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 banknote with a tactile feature — a series of raised dots in the top lefthand 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, following last year’s launch of a similar five-pound note that showcases Winston Churchill. A new 20pound note featuring artist J.M.W. Turner will follow in 2020.
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.
As well as a portrait of Austen, the note features a quote from “Pride and Prejudice”: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”
“It is wonderful to see the inspirational author Jane Austen celebrated,” said Victoria Cleland, the Bank of England’s chief cashier. “And even more poignant being launched during the 200th anniversary of her death.”