2016-05-10 Tue

The new £5 and £10 banknote designs were released on April 25th by The Royal Bank of Scotland and the De La Rue printing firm jointly featuring women for the first time.

The £5 note will feature Scottish novelist and poet Nan Shepherd and will be released this year. The £10 note will depict scientist Mary Somerville and will be released in 2017. Shepherd was selected by the bank’s board while Somerville was the winner of a recent public vote.

The “the Fabric of Nature” themed polymer notes contain a variety of security features to curtain counterfeiting activities and ease authentication processes at the same time. They include a broad clear window containing the bank’s logo printed in optically variable SPARK Orbital ink.

The reverse shows a picture of the Cairngorms, and a quote from her book ‘The Living Mountain’. It also features two mackerel and an excerpt from the poem “The Choice” by Sorley MacLean.