Blind Coin Collector

Braille on money

It is not rare to find braille on money. Some coins and paper currencies contain braille writing. Braille is more often associated with paper money, but there are a few examples of braille on coins. There are two primary reasons to put braille on money: to bring awareness to people with visual impairment, or to make it easier to recognize currency.

Braille on coins

The first coin with braille was the 1 Crown from the Isle of Man commemorating the International Year of Disabled persons. Since then more than a hundred coins were minted with braille.

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Rajeev Prasad, a numismatic blogger from India

One day as I was searching for something, I came across a blog, Coins and More by Rajeev Prasad. I found what I was looking for, and since there aren’t too many numismatic blogs out there, I was excited to find out more.

This blog is truly a wealth of information. Rajeev is a retired banker and numismatist, living in Pune, India. He writes about coins, paper money, stamps, culture, and some of his own stories. At this time, he has over 1000 posts on the site. I have to admit, I did not have a chance to read through the entire site yet.

Over the last few weeks , we exchanged a few thoughts with Rajeev, he asked me to write a post for his site, and I did ask him if he would be willing to do an interview on my blog, because I certainly would recommend his site to my readers. So, enjoy!
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Accessible coins in India

When we talk about accessible currency, mostly we think about banknotes, which are usable for people with disabilities. In most countries, we can assume that coins can be distinguished easily. This is true for the most part in most countries. There are, however, a few countries where coins are harder to differentiate.

When I was in India, I found that the 1, 2, and 5 Rupees, which are most frequently used, are not the easiest to tell apart. I was surprised to read a couple of press releases in the last few months from India and Kenya about changing their coins to be more accessible for visually impaired people.

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Measuring coins

Measuring coins has always been a problem, and I don’t even know why I didn’t write about it before. Earlier today I received a comment from another blind collector who was asking me about how I measure coins. As I started responding to him, I thought there is enough info for an entire post.

Though the original question was about measuring weight, it is worth examining both weight and distance.

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Does a QR code make currency accessible?

After I wrote a post about accessible currency, I got an interesting question from Dean Parr, Numismatist about what I thought about using a QR code on a currency. The example was the Russian 100 Ruble, which is a circulation commemorative. If you are not familiar with the concept, briefly a QR code is a code that can be converted into human readable information. It is mostly used to direct people to web sites for more information. The user scans the QR code with a cell phone, which automatically opens a web site. The concept was invented in 1994. For more information, read the Wikipedia article.

The 100 Ruble banknote contains a QR code which can be scanned with a phone and it opens a web page about the banknote. The banknote also uses raised print to help people with visual impairment to identify it. So, the question is, could this technology be used to make currency accessible? The short answer is yes, but there are a few considerations.

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Note Teller 2, a money identification device

Earlier i wrote about my collection of currency identifiers. This week I have added an interesting device to the collection, called the Note Teller which was mostly used around 2010. At the end of the post there is also a video about it.

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What is accessible currency?

I’ve been writing about currency recently. No worries, we will get back to coins soon, but this is an interesting topic and deserves some discussion. I am researching the topic in greater detail, so probably I will have more to say about it. So, today, I would like to write about what is really accessible currency, why does it matter, and will also discuss an alternative approach.

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My new collection: currency identifiers

It was by accident that I ended up with a collection of currency identifiers. Let me explain. Recently I started to research accessible currencies for people with visual impairment. It didn’t take long to figure out that it will not make much sense on a theoretical level, because reading about it is one thing, but if I wanted to really understand accessible currency, I had to get my hands on a few.

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How Blind People Identify Paper Money

For people who are blind or visually impaired, it is important to safely and quickly recognize their currency. Both when paying, and when receiving change. Depending on the currency, there are different solutions available. Let’s examine a few ways of how blind people can safely recognize their paper currency.
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Back to India

I had a feeling that I would need to get back to India for more work, but I didn’t think it was going to be that soon. Though last year I spent almost three weeks in India, there was so much more I wanted to learn about, I was delighted to find out that I got awarded another three weeks. This time after visiting Bangalore again, I went to Hyderabad and Delhi.

Last time I had to miss the monthly meeting of the Karnataka Numismatic Society, so I was glad to find out that they were meeting while I was in Bangalore. On that Sunday morning, I took an Uber to the hotel where they met. As soon as I arrived, I didn’t even have a chance to ask where the meeting was, Mr. Parekh came up to me. It was great to see him again. He took me to the meeting, where they already had a full room, and also a few dealer tables.

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