The old £10 note must be spent by March next year after the Bank of England revealed the date for when it will cease to be legal tender.

A use by date of March 1, 2018, has been slapped on £10 paper notes following the introduction of the plastic tenner on 14 September.

However, old notes can still be spent ahead of the cut-off date, or exchanged at the Bank once this point has passed.

The Bank introduced the paper £10 note featuring naturalist Charles Darwin on November 7, 2000. Around 55 per cent of the £10 notes in circulation are made from polymer, while 359 million are paper.

The new £10 banknote, featuring a picture of author Jane Austin, is the first Bank of England note with a tactile feature to help blind and partially-sighted users.

Like the £5 note already in circulation featuring Sir Winston Churchill, the new £10 banknote is made from polymer, which is more durable and expected to last five years in total.

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.

People who still have paper £5 notes can exchange them at the Bank of England in person, or via post by completing a form and sending the note to Department NEX, Bank of England, Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8AH.