Money Games

Blind Currency

December 1st 2006 13:16

I've been hearing a lot lately about the government changing our money to allow the blind to be able to read it. On the surface, it sounds like a kind and compassionate thing to to and probably has a whole lot of supporters. Personally, I think it's ridiculuous! Hold on a minute. I'm not an insensitive jerk! Blind people have been around as long as money has, haven't they? Blindness is a tragedy that happens to young and old and from a variety of reasons. I have no wish to make things harder on them. However, the money we use has never been printed in Braille so not doing it now should make no difference. Consider this, folks... How do the deaf hear? How do paraplegics get around? Did the government build their wheelchairs and hearing aids? Nope. How about a little good old ingenuity to solve the problem? Why should the government have to take back all the currency, reprint more millions in Braille, and raise our taxes to accomplish something unnecessary? Nevada casinos have slot machines that "read" bills without them being in Braille. If the technology exists to "read" bills for gambling machines, it can surely be used to "read" money for the blind. I can picture a small device that can be carried in a purse or pocket and easily used to identify the denomination of paper bills. Before anyone out there gets the idea that it would be too expensive, think about so many of the inexpensive things we use every day and what they once cost (when they were new to the market.) Everything from coffee makers to computers started out horrifically pricey. Everyone who wants one now can get it! If a technology company got hold of the idea to create money readers for the blind, believe me, it wouldn't take long until the product was on the market! It would certainly be quicker and more efficient than expecting the government to do it. And our taxes wouldn't be increased to pay for it. So, how about it, folks? Any inventors out there?

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Posted By: S.L. - Category: No Category

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Comments

14 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by youranter

December 1st 2006 19:16

youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern

SL, I'm not sure about the bill reading thing. An American friend told me that you can tell a bill by its texture. Maybe. I'm not that well versed in it. We don't have that problem here as all bills are printed on the same paper. We went to the 'Loonie' as it is easier to distinguish from a 5'er, 10 spot or twenty. There are rumblings of making our $5.00 bill into a coin. Good in theory as the coins do last longer than bills, but practically, with all the change I carry, I will be walking lopsided if this goes through. I remember being in a hospital and buying something at the concession stand that was run by the blind institution. The girl had to ask me what denomination bill I had given her. Sad but true, I told her it was one dollar instead of going for it and saying it was a twenty. (cont'd)

Comment by youranter

December 1st 2006 19:24

youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern

(cont'd) It's not so much, I feel, that your taxes will go up. Lord knows our mint is forever pressing 'Special Edition' loonies in order to sell them. Rather, the value of the money goes down. Think about the times you pass by a Sally Ann bell ringer and toss a quarter or two into the bucket. I used to do it. Now I find I am tossing a buck into the pot. The other day I gave a 'toonie' ($2.00) to a charity I believe in. Without the coins, I would have known which pocket harboured the bills and which one harboured the bills. The coins are all in the same pocket now and are thrown around without any thought to their worth. The American dollar is a benchmark for world currencies. If it is devalued, even by neglect, the rest of us suffer.

Comment by S.L.Bradish

December 1st 2006 20:17

Hi Youranter! Good points all! I can't help but wonder where the latest notion came from about redoing all the paper money. Must have been some lib... Anyway, the private sector has made wheel chairs and hearing aids so I can't come up with a good reason for them not to come up with a small device to identify cash. Let's hope they do it instead of the financial abyss we could have if they pull all the currency and send us the bill.

Comment by Damo

December 1st 2006 21:45

I think that changing the currency to help the blind has merrit from several for several reasons.
Australia has done away with all paper produced notes and replaced them with plastic note. This was considered to be a radical and potentially dangerous act when it was first pioneered. Yet plasitic note have several advantages over old paper note. The are much harder to copy or reproduce. They last much longer than paper notes. They are stonger and are much more difficult to tear. Waterproof. Unlike paper notes the surface can be etched to allow marking to be added to assist the blind. Yet the real driving force for the change was financial. Changing to plastic notes made the net cost of note production cheaper. The bottom line is that Paper Notes will go the way of the steam engine, loved by romantics but impractical to the modern world.
A machine to read note is fine if every blind person is issued with one but poverty may prevent some and flat batteries may prevent others.
Coins have long been designed to cater for people with poor eyesight, not just the legally blind, by being different sizes and weights. The original Australian 50c coin was changed from being roind to multisided after it became confised with the 20c coin. $1 and $2 notes were replaced with gold coins. 1c and 2c coins are no longer produced as they cannot buy anything these days.

Comment by S.L.Bradish

December 1st 2006 22:15

Hello Damo! Your idea sounds good for Australia. It would be much easier to convert the currency. But in the US, we have paper money and I've heard nothing about any forthcoming changes. I really believe that the private sector could come up with a cheap device to identify the various bills easier than we can change all the currency to Braille. It might be something as simple as a finger- held scanner (recharged at an electric outlet when not in use) or as complicated as a scanner the stores have that the customer could place a bill into and hear the amount spoken by the computer. My eyes aren't terrific so I'm sensitive to the needs of the blind. But we didn't need the government to invent hearing aids and we shouldn't have to pay for a new currency for the blind when the pribvate sector could so easily invent one.

Comment by youranter

December 1st 2006 22:50

youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern

You're right. The private sector can and will do it more effciently and at a lower cost than the government. And yes, it was a Liberal idea over here. It sort of worked out for us, but it is going a bit far now. What I object to is the devaluation of our dollar. A buck becomes a quarter because people throw change around like it was nothing, but if they pulled out a bill, they'd think twice.

Comment by Damo

December 1st 2006 23:01

S.L Bradish
The bottom line reason for changing the Australian currency was financial. New note are printer to replace old notes and this costs money. Plastic notes simply last longer and costs are reduced. Less tax dollars waisted. This technology has been exported to a number of other nations who see the practicality of going plastic
Here is a quote from the Note Printing Australia website.
" NPA has also produced polymer notes for Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Kuwait, Samoa, New Zealand, Romania, Bangladesh, Solomon Islands, Mexico, Nepal, Vietnam, and Chile."

I think it is worth researching it viability.
http://www.noteprinting.com/banknotes_standard.html
Your text goes here

Comment by S.L.Bradish

December 1st 2006 23:18

Thanks for the info, Damo. There isn't much I can do with it, however. our currency is still made of special paper.

Comment by S.L.Bradish

December 1st 2006 23:46

Hi Youranter!! It was probably one of the same libs who wanted to put bumpers on shopping carts for the homeless. Talk about fixing a broken leg with a bandaid! Anyway, I can picture a little scanner that beeps or vibrates a code which verifies the denomination of the bills since it doesn't look like our currency is likely to change any time soon. I hope our dollars don't get devalued too, but it seems to happen all too often. Politicians haven't figured out yet that the citizens/voters want their money to be worth something!

Comment by Lil John.

December 2nd 2006 00:18

It doesnt have to be braille and it doesn't have to be overly costly. The answer was given by one of your commenters actually. Blind people have developed their other senses quite well. We have 6 bills.

$1
$5
$10
$20
$50
$100

By simply adding a thin trnasparent coat of some sort of plastic to one of 6 identifiable places on the current bills, a blind preson could indentify the bill without having to redesign it. Bills typically last 18 months in circulation before being too worn to use anymore... so simply introducing the plasticized bills into the equation will solve the problem with minimal cost in a reasonable period of time. The best answers are often found in the most unliikely places.

Comment by S.L.Bradish

December 2nd 2006 01:05

Good idea, L'il John! I hope someone in power gets the message before they pull all the currency and replace it with bills in Braille. I'm not familiar with plastic money or where the strips should go. It just seemed like a problem more easily solved in the private sector than at the governmental level.