New Jane Austen £10 note will help blind

The new tenner, which will be issued on September 14, is the first Bank of England banknote with a tactile feature to help blind and partially-sighted users.

The new tactile feature is a series of raised dots in the top left-hand corner of the banknote, developed with the help of the RNIB.

Features already incorporated into banknotes to help vision-impaired people include different sizing, bold numerals, raised print and differing colour palettes.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney unveiled the design of the new £10 banknote at Winchester Cathedral, where the Pride And Prejudice and Sense And Sensibility author was buried after her death in 1817 at the age of 41.

The design of the new note includes a portrait of Austen commissioned by her family, Austen’s writing table and a quote from Pride And Prejudice: “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”

Mr Carney said: “Our banknotes 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.

“The new £10 note celebrates Jane Austen’s work. Austen’s novels have a universal appeal and speak as powerfully today as they did when they were first published.”

People can continue to spend the existing paper £10 notes for now. They will be phased out gradually as they are banked.

Legal tender status of the paper £10 featuring Charles Darwin will eventually be withdrawn in spring 2018. The exact date will be announced at least three months in advance.

Like the £5 note already in circulation featuring Sir Winston Churchill, the new £10 banknote is made from polymer.

The transition to polymer has sparked controversy after the Bank confirmed that an “extremely small amount” of tallow – or animal fat – was used to produce polymer pellets, which were part of the production process for creating the notes.