A NEW £10 banknote celebrating Jane Austen has entered circulation today and will start to show up in people's pockets in the coming weeks.

The new tenner 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.

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

Just over one billion polymer £10 notes have been printed ready for issue and they will start to appear in wallets as the notes leave cash centres around the country and enter general circulation.

The new banknotes are expected to last at least two-and-a-half times longer than the current paper £10 notes, around five years in total, and stay in better condition during day-to-day use.

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Legal tender status of the paper £10 featuring Charles Darwin will eventually be withdrawn in spring 2018.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.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said: "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.

"The new £10 will be printed on polymer, making it safer, stronger and cleaner.

"The note will also include a new tactile feature on the £10 to help the visually impaired, ensuring the nation's money is as inclusive as possible."

This year has marked 200 years since Austen's death, on July 18, 1817.

Victoria Cleland, the Bank's chief cashier, said: "It is wonderful to see the inspirational author Jane Austen celebrated on the new £10, and even more poignant being launched during the 200th anniversary of her death. I am grateful to the cash industry for their support in bringing the cleaner, safer, stronger notes to the public."

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.

In August, following a public consultation, the Bank said that after "careful and serious consideration", there would be no change to the composition of polymer used for future banknotes.