Mandate to change US currency

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/11/29/national/w063714S22.DTL

 

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"U.S. District Judge James Robertson on Tuesday ordered the Treasury Department to start working on the problem, leaving it up to government officials to determine the best solution. "
The judge was also quoted as saying that he dosen't know how to do it, just do it.
Typical judicial restraint.

 

A blind mans bucks!

I wonder how they are going to do this to the bills.

Anyone willing to partake in a posable discussion, about the what could or should be done with the paper money to help the blind?

I have thought about this a few times in the past. Im glad to hear that this is a "HAS TO BE DONE tpe of thing now.

1, Blind people should not have to as how much did i give you.Nor should they have to get help from some one to fold or mark there money for them.

2. the US bills really need some work. The government should give the people of this nation something new to look at. There have been some little changes over the past 6 years. But really the cash is looking a little dull. I know theres a lot of things that cant be done with paper money. But theres alot that can be.

3,Becuase it makes my money more money. lol



Now,as for what I think is the best corse of action it to use some sort of super thin alloy or a plastic and metal based material with Braille textures some where on the bill. But theirs a lot of things that can go wrong with that, unless its as flexible as paper. Perhaps even something as simple as having just small stungly clustered particles of the cotton threads that are all ready in use in the paper bills. That seem's like the most technologically feasible thing to do. To (Condense a Braille text with cotton on ONLY one spot of each bill.) As to make one Braille dot in the middle of the bill to help ID it as say a- 1 dollar, and so on or along those lins for other denomination.


Any one else have any thoughts or cares about this?

 

Nathan:
Let's be real, what can we do? Sure something can be done, like use different size bills for each denomination, but then the usual grippers will say that they don't fit in their (insert: wallet, purse, cash register, piggy bank).
If we use braille, then someone will (within about one minute) add or delete the marking to change the value of the note.
Besides, with wear, the braille will wear down and then we're back to square one.
Let's just wait for the government to spend about $1 billion dollars on a study, and agree that we should change the system.
How about $100 coins? Shaped like a rectangle; $50 coin: shaped like a diamond; $20: shaped like a octagon; $10 -- a square; $5 -- oval; and $1 a five pointed star; and the infamous $2 -- use a fish.

What is the answer? I'm sure that the government will have some wonderful idea, that will stink.
:goof:

 

There has been a discussion of this subject in the US Coin Forum that probably should have been moved over here.

 

i like the brail idea... but it would have to be inside the currency... but also... how would it stand to worn currency?

 

Actually that shows a lot of restraint. Usually the judges that mandate that something be done then go on to specify HOW it is to be done. The legislating from the bench problem. In this case the judge has acted properly, just determining that the law does apply and derecting the government to obey it.

The government has actually been studying how to make the currency more identifiable to the blind for years. So they may already have some ideas on how to do it already. The simplest solution for the government would be changing the sizes, but that would create tremendous headaches all through the economy. So we will probably see braille or some kind of tactile inclusion in the paper.

 

a lot of countries do it. they have marks on the bill for blind people to feel them (raised marks). so its possible all it requires is a willingness to do it.

 

i had a dream last night that I got new 2007 $20 bills. If you pressed the $20 logo, it actually said "20 dollars". The bill was cool looking... a purple-blueish color!!

 

currency change

Can/Will they also finish the backs of the bills. Since the new bill have no border around the head of the person on the bill, the backs have also lost their borders. Now the trees bordering the buildings are just cut where the border was. Looks really bad and unfinished. I cannot believe that no one, who can done anything about it, looked at the re-design and said "yeah, thats good."

 

Wouldn't it be easier/cheaper to come up with a pocket-sized scanner, that gives an audio description of the denomination, for the blind to use?

 

I can think of a few simple ways.

One is to punch some little holes (like braille books), it wouldn't need to be complicated, just maybe 2-3 holes, with different spacing. Another possability is to have a few little rinkles or notches in one of the edges, again with the number/spacing telling what the bill is. If you did it this way, you could even do it to a whole stack with minimal effort.

I'm not sure how holes/notches would wear, but they could test them easily.

 

Wouldn't it be cheaper for the government to hire a CPA for every blind person in the US and just have him stand there and just say:
"That's a $1 bill"
" That's a $10 bill."
Etc.?

?
?
?

 

They already exist and in my opinion, this is where the focus should be. A scanner could not only tell what denomination the bill is, but also if it is real. Otherwise, any of the recommended "solutions" (size, braile, etc.) could be easily faked. It would be cheaper for the govt to give every blind person a scanner than it would to reconfigure our currency.

As for other countries and their multi-sized notes, it causes lazyness and lack of attention, thereby increasing the liklihood of counterfeits. A European friend of mine complained that on a visit to the US he got confused because all the bills are the same size, and he accidentally tipped someone $5 when he meant to give $1. I guess actually looking at the numbers on the bills was too much of a challenge for him.

 

Just raise the Ink. Dont make them diffrent sizes..

♣Peter♣

 

Why are you reading the Chronicle?????

Why do we have to change it for everyone, there should be a change, but not for the majority. We pay enough taxes to allow the governmnet to solve this for the blind. Purple, blueish, triangular, opaque. why don't we stop currency and mandate use of ATM cards. That is the only true way to make it work.

I am sure that Gavin Newsom (May. SF) and Ron Dellums (May. Oakland) will burn more of our hard earned CASH

 

Nathan, your post is so riddled with horrible spelling, words that don't exist, and inscrutable logic that I wonder if you posted it as a joke. If you did, it wasn't funny. Another possibility is that you were falling-down drunk when you wrote it. Either way, it makes me think the administrators of this site should require a minimum level of literacy before they allow anything to be posted.