I spent the last week in New Orleans, and as soon as I found out about my trip, I started to prepare to visit the Mint museum. However, things didn’t turn out too well. Previously I was writing about fun travels and museum visits, and maybe a few years ago I wouldn’t have admitted what happened, or just wouldn’t have written about it. But let’s look at a museum visit where things didn’t go well, mostly due to my own mistake.
Continue reading “The New Orleans Mint, when things don’t go well”
Among the most recent tactile currency markings, a new trend is emerging: indicating the value using dot patterns. The idea is not new, it has been used in Canadda since 2004, but for some reason most recently it has been picked up by other countries.
When you can’t see the coins you buy, sooner or later it is inevitable to buy a fake. One of the most frequent questions I get from people is how do I know if a coin is real or fake. The short answer is, I don’t. But there is much more to it,.
If you have followed this blog for a while, you know that for the last few years, I was trying to figure out how to have coins described in great detail for blind people. I have to say, all my ventures have failed. The original idea was that blind people would understand what a coin looks like, particularly features which are impossible to feel by touch. But there were two problems. The first was that I don’t think too many people were interested. The second, I could not find enough people to describe a good number of coins. But I have missed the obvious. There is already such a thing. Though it wasn’t used to the fullest several years ago, but today it seems that it can be the solution. It is the ability to describe coins on Numista. This feature is also helpful for all collectors. At this point, I am ready to give up my original intention to have coins described for blind people, because it is no longer relevant. I will, however, maintain the related posts on the blog, for the sake of historical documentation.
Let’s continue the International Year of Disabled Persons coin series with Portugal. Portugal released two coins to commemorate the International Year of Disabled Persons, a 25 and a 100 Escudo. Though the official date of IYDP was 1981, these coins were released to circulation in 1984, for the opening of the XV. international rehabilitation congress. The criteria of the IYDP coin issuance was to depict people who despite of their disability made a significant achievement in life, or contributed to the lives of people with disabilities. Portugal chose an example of both groups. António Feliciano de Castilho who was a blind poet, and Jacob Rodrigues Pereira who was instrumental in developing sign language.
The Brazilian National Association of the Blind, Organização Nacional de Cegos do Brasil, with other organizations is suing for the removal of the new 200 Reais bank note, because it is not sufficiently accessible for the visually impaired. In short, the new 200 Reais bank note is exactly the same size as the 20 Reais note, while all previous notes are different in size.
Continue reading “Lawsuit to make the new Brazilian 200 Reais accessible”
The Bank of England started an interesting initiative, describing their collection. As they claim on their site, it is suitable for visually impaired adults. There is no information about the initiative, but it speaks for itself.
Continue reading “The Bank of England describes their collection for visually impaired people”
Not surprisingly this year was rather unusual. Not just for the obvious reasons, but about a year ago I lost my job which previously allowed me to travel so much. Fortunately I found a similar position, which does not require any travel. I did not like the lack of travel until March, when I realized that it is probably the best thing that happened to me recently, particularly that I ended up working as an accessibility consultant in the health sector. But let’s start with the end, as I am the least proud of that part.
I often hear the argument that electronic payments can ultimately replace currency in which case it won’t matter if bank notes are accessible for disabled people. There is certainly some truth to it, but it is much more complex. Let’s see if electronic payments will solve the need for accessible currency.
Continue reading “Will electronic payments solve the accessible currency problem?”
In 1981, the Isle of Man released four 1 Crown coins celebrating the international Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP). With this, they issued almost ten percent of the entire series. Though the coins are identical in measurement, they represent a diverse history and are unique in many ways.
Before we look at the coins, it is important to put the Isle of Man into a greater perspective to understand the diversity of coins.
