Mint to Offer First Coin with Readable Braille

While it will not go into general circulation, the first U.S. coin featuring readable Braille has been announced by the U.S. Mint. The 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar commemorative coin will go on sale in the spring of 2009, marking the 200th anniversary of the 1809 birth of Louis Braille.

Featured on the back of the 1-ounce dollar coin, the word "Brl" -- the code for "Braille" -- is inscribed in readable Braille above the image of a school boy reading a Braille book. A bookshelf labeled "Independence" appears in the background.

Production of the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar will be limited to 400,000 coins. The Mint will donate $10.00 from the sale of each proof coin set to the National Federation of the Blind to help grow Braille literacy initiatives.

What About Paper Money and the Blind? On May 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld a 2006 ruling by a federal judge that U.S. paper money must employ features to make the denominations of the various bills easily distinguishable to the blind and visually impaired. Currently, blind people use costly optical bill-reading scanners or ask a trusted sighted person a bill's value, then fold the different denominations in representative ways.

Also See:
Judge Rules US Paper Money Must Help the Blind (2006)
Bill Would Protect the Blind from "Silent" Cars