The final cotton paper note featuring a portrait of naturalist Charles Darwin, first issued in 2000, was withdrawn from circulation on 1 March 2018.

[1] Ten pounds notes were introduced by the Bank of England for the first time in 1759 as a consequence of gold shortages caused by the Seven Years' War.

The tradition of portraying historical British figures on the reverse continued with the E series, first issued in 1992, with an image of Charles Dickens appearing.

It featured a portrait of Charles Darwin on the back as well as an illustration of HMS Beagle and images of various flora and fauna.

In 2013, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, announced that a newly designed £10 banknote, in polymer, rather than cotton paper, and featuring early 19th-century novelist Jane Austen, would be issued.

[13] The note with serial number AA01001817 was donated to Winchester Cathedral, marking the year of Austen's burial, 1817.