NFB-Louis Braille Commemorative Coin
US Mint Marks Braille Bicentennial with Embossed Silver Dollar
Oct 2, 2008
In 2009, the U.S. Mint will soon issue a silver dollar to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of Louis Braille, whose raised-dot reading system brought literacy to the blind and remains the primary language for many of the world’s 180 million blind people.
The NFB-Louis Braille Commemorative Coin, unveiled in June at the National Federation of the Blind’s annual convention in Dallas, features Braille's image and raised dots spelling "Brl," the contraction for Braille.
The U.S. Mint is authorized to produce up to 400,000 NFB-Braille coins. Those not sold by the end of 2009 will be destroyed, potentially increasing their value as collectibles.
NFB-Braille Coin Proceeds to Bolster Blind Literacy Programs
The $1 coin carries a $10 surcharge. The NFB will match all coin-sale proceeds through its own fundraising efforts to support its literacy programs, including Braille Readers Are Leaders, which seeks to increase braille comprehension and instill enthusiasm and pride in its use among blind and visually impaired students.
The NFB hopes the coin’s launch draws attention to what they term a “braille literacy crisis.” According to the NFB, only 10 percent of blind children learn braille in school, while 80 percent of blind workers are fluent in it, underscoring braille’s crucial role in enabling the blind to participate in society.
Louis Braille was only 16 when he invented his raised-dot system, modifying an earlier embossed language called “night writing,” developed for the French military by Charles Barbier. Braille shrunk night writing’s dot cell from 12 to six (much easier for a finger to scan) and had each cell correspond to letters rather than sounds.
Though its simple elegance was immediately apparent to the blind, it took nearly a century for braille to supplant all other embossed systems such as New York Point championed by sighted educators trying to improve Braille’s code.
Braille’s genius also touched the world of print. He conceived the raphigraph (needle writer), which enabled blind people to write regular print on a machine now regarded as the world’s first dot-matrix printer. The first braillewriting machines appeared in 1892.
NFB-Braille Coin Signals Potential Changes to U.S. Currency
Senators Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) co-sponsored the bill authorizing the coin, (The Louis Braille Bicentennial-Braille Literacy Commemorative Coin Act, Public Law 109-247), in 2006, the same year A US court ruled that U.S. Treasury discriminates against the blind by printing currency in indistinguishable denominations.
The U.S. Court of Appeals (Washington, D.C. Circuit) upheld that ruling in May 2008, which might prompt printing of bills in different sizes or with raised markings.
The NFB-Braille Commemorative is not the first US coin to feature braille. Alabama’s 2003 state quarter, which honors Helen Keller, includes her name spelled in English and braille.
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