A Note of Caution

There are still old ten pound notes in circulation, even though the new plastic tenner has been in use for some time now, but you need to spend these before Thursday 1st March when the old tenner ceases to become legal tender. You will be able to bank your "old" tenners at your bank for some time after this. Only problem is finding a branch that is still open near you, that doesn't cost a tenner to get there! The new plastic £10 note featuring Jane Austen came into circulation in September of 2017, replacing the Charles Darwin version. 

The 'tenner' was first issued by the Bank of England during the Seven Year’s Global War of 1755 to 1764  in order to help keep more of its gold reserves. The idea was for people to cash in smaller denominations of money in exchange for gold, therefore relieving the strain on the Bank of England. The note was issued in 1759 and was approximateley the width of an A4 sheet of paper. It was printed on one side only using black ink on white paper. These tenners remained in use right up to the end of the Second World War in 1945, when the £10 note was removed from circulation. 19 years later it was re-issued by the Bank of England in 1964.  The £10 note (and £5) was designed by Reynolds Stone and was the first bank note to feature the monarch on the front face.

The 1759 ten pound note

the 1966 ten pound note

The current £10 note being withdrawn from use kept a similar style to the original 1993 note but replaced Charles Dickens with Charles Darwin. Alongside Darwin is a depiction of the famous ship HMS Beagle heading out to sea.

the millenium tenner of 2000

​Did You Know?
The words on a bank note "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of ten pounds" date from long ago when our notes represented deposits of gold. At that time, a member of the public could exchange one of our banknotes for gold to the same value. For example, a £5 note could be exchanged for five gold coins, called sovereigns. But the value of the pound has not been linked to gold for many years, so the meaning of the promise to pay has changed. Exchange into gold is no longer possible and Bank of England notes can only be exchanged for other Bank of England notes of the same face value. Public trust in the pound is now maintained by the operation of monetary policy, the objective of which is price stability.