Old £10 notes that feature portrait of Charles Darwin no longer legal tender

On Thursday, the old £10 notes became null and void as legal tender and from Friday 2 March shops will no longer be required to accept the paper banknotes that feature a portrait of Charles Darwin.

New plastic £10 notes depicting Jane Austen were introduced in September 2017.

The Bank of England recently estimated that around £2bn worth of old tenners were still in circulation.

After the deadline, people can exchange old paper notes by posting them or delivering them in person to the Bank of England in central London. The bank said it would accept the old notes indefinitely.

People may also be able to exchange the old note at a local bank or post office but there is no obligation to accept them after the deadline.

The new £10 note is the second to be printed on a plastic polymer, which the bank has said is cleaner, safer and more hard-wearing than the traditional cotton paper it will replace. The plastic fiver, featuring Winston Churchill, entered circulation in September 2016.