The United Nations proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP). In connection with this event, countries around the world released a series of commemorative coins. Surprisingly, there is very little information out there about the series, information can only be gathered from numerous resources. I set out to uncover and collect some information about these coins.
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On January 1, 2020 the Reserve Bank of India issued a press release in which they announced the launch of their currency identification app. The app is called MANI, Mobile Aided Note Identifier. It is available on iOS and Android operating systems.
Below you can read my review of the app, and at the end of this page you can find a video to see it in action.
Throughout my travels, I have visited several coin museums and coin exhibits. Thanks to all the people who made this experience enjoyable, a new world of understanding numismatics opened up to me. As I visited more and more numismatic collections, I was always thinking if this experience could be replicated for other blind people to enjoy.
If you ask me if numismatic museums should be available for the blind, without any hesitation I would say: yes, of course. But the answer is not all that obvious. In this post, I will examine the reasons why blind people would visit a museum which maybe very different from sighted people, and will also discuss the advantage and difficulties of making numismatic collections available through touch. A spoiler alert: I will not answer my question with a yes or no, if coins exhibits should be accessible for the blind. Rather, I will give a few pointers only, because it is ultimately a decision a museum will have to make based on their collection and their abilities to make it available for blind people.
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It seems that we have heard more about accessible currency this year than in any year before. If we read the news carefully, there is announcement almost every month somewhere about making currency more accessible, or maintaining the commitment. I will give a brief overview of what happened this year. As I explained in an earlier post, finding this type of information is not always obvious, and it is possible I missed a few items. If you are aware of any, please leave a comment at the bottom and I will add it.
A big thank you to my friend Quentin Christensen for helping me verifying the new features from pictures on the internet and in catalogs.
It takes dedication and creativity to find out about the accessibility features of newly released currency. This information is not popular enough to have its own category, or even its own headline. I thought I would share my challenges about finding out what the press releases and news bites really mean.
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Originally the title of this post was going to be why I am not collecting paper currency. But over the months as I was putting my thoughts together (AKA procrastinating) to write this post, I had to admit that I do have a bank note collection, and for that matter, I do collect accessible currency after all, but more about that at the end. In this post, I will write about the challenges of collecting paper currency and about what I do instead, for the most part.
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I am happy to announce that the harvester macro has been updated. It is now much faster, collects more data and it is much more accurate.
I read an article in the October 27, 2019 E-Sylum about an annual coin petting zoo organized by the Lawrence University classics department and the Wriston Art Center Galleries in Appleton, Wisconsin. The idea fascinated me, because it was a hands-on experience with coins, and had absolutely nothing to do with blind people. When I talk to coin collectors, I often encourage them to experience coins by touch when it is possible. Traditionally we can see coins in holders or behind glass, but there is still many to be handled especially when using a proper protection of objects.
After reading about the coin petting zoo, I was curious how it came about, and I wanted to see what we can learn from this experience either for collectors in general, or if there is something that can be adopted for blind people to learn about numismatics. I contacted Adriana Brook, a professor of classics, from Lawrence University’s classic department with my questions. She responded promptly and suggested that I also contact Beth Zinsli who is the curator of this collection.
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When it comes to coin identifier apps, it really depends on what you want to use it for. In this post, I will give you an overview of what is out there in terms of coin identifier apps, and coin identification solutions and related research.
I recently sent a message to the staff at the Internet Archive and received details about Open Library’s new book sponsorship program which lets readers pay to digitize missing titles and add them into the library’s lending program.
