The new, polymer £10 note featuring Jane Austen comes into circulation today.

Austen is the only woman – apart from the Queen – to now feature on an English bank note, following the withdrawal of the old £5 notes in May, which featured Elizabeth Fry. Fry was replaced with a picture of Winston Churchill.

Paper bank notes – £5, £10 and £20 – are slowly being replaced by plastic notes, which are more secure and resilient to counterfeiting, more resistant to dirt and more durable.

The paper fiver is no longer legal tender, and once the new £10 note enters circulation, its paper predecessor will be withdrawn from circulation in Spring 2018.

What does the new £10 look like?

The new £10 note features English novelist Austen with plump cheeks and a calm expression, taken from a portrait which was commissioned after her death at the age of 41.