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I just got back from a trip to the States and I have to say that US money is very boring by comparison to UK money. How on earth do blind/old people deal with

I just got back from a trip to the States and I have to say that US money is very boring by comparison to UK money. How on earth do blind/old people deal with the fact that all denominations are practically the same size, design, colour etc?

leecb 7y ago
To assist people with disabilities, you can request a little electronic reader that clips over the corner of the bill: > the iBill Talking Bank Note Identifier, is now available free of charge from the Treasury Department to any US citizen who is blind or visually impaired. > It can speak the dollar amount; it can produce a different pattern of tones for each denomination; or it can vibrate silently > The United States is the only country that prints all denominations of currency in the same size. The US and Switzerland are the only two countries that use the same colors for all of their various bills. https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technology/accessible-identification-systems-people-who-are-blind-0 https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technolog...
- philwelch 7y ago
  I believe the $20, $50, and $100 bill are periodically redesigned with accent colors, along with other anti-counterfeiting measures. The $10, $5, $2, and $1 are not valuable enough to be worth counterfeiting so they never redesign them.
soneca 7y ago
I recently moved to the US and I hate its coins. To the point that I consider all of them unusable. When I get home, I leave all the coins that I received as change on a plate by the door, hoping someday I will bring all of them at once somewhere to change for bills (I believe there are machines that do this). My complaints: i) They do not have numbers on them!! You have to read words to know the value ii) To make point i) worse, they have nicknames printed on some of the coins!! They do not write "ten cents", it is "one dime". They do not write "twenty-five cents", they write "quarter dollar" (even the unit here changes) iii) To make points i) and ii) worse, there is no default place where the value is written. $0.01 is a horizontal banner. $0.10 and $0.25 are round-based by the edge of the coin. $0.05 is round-based, but not by the edge of the coin, just slightly above another text that is by the edge. iv) The coins do not obey a coherent progression of value and size. From smallest to largest the coins are: $0.10 < $0.01 < $0.05 < $0.25 v) The colors are all the same, except for the $0.01 coin. So when you have a bunch of coins, you have to properly spread them in your hand to be able to compare their sizes (which is hard when the items are circles), account that there is no size-value correlation, and if you do not remember by size; you have to read a tiny sentence, lost in the middle of several other sentences, with no typographic differentiation of where they are.
- jjeaff 7y ago
  I have this problem any time I go to another country. Many times they don't even print them in a language I can read! I'm kidding of course. Because usually, even if I'm only in a place for a week or two, I'll have it figured out and it's not a problem. I mean, there are only really 4 options. 1, 5, 10, and 25 cents. And I can't remember the last time I used change to buy something.
  - iamnotacrook 7y ago
    "I mean, there are only really 4 options. 1, 5, 10, and 25 cents." Really 5 - I got a dollar coin. Apparently they're rare although I didn't handle a lot of cash and I got one on the second or third day I was there so...not that rare then. I used my UK contactless card. It was funny because in a lot of places they'd never seen one and kept telling me to insert or even swipe it - something I've not done for years in the UK. When the tap didn't work once it was amusing handing the card to the cashier and watching him repeatedly swipe the card and then enter the long card number, expiry date etc like it was a cardholder-not-present transaction!
    - jjeaff 7y ago
      The tap cards are using the same tech as apple and Google pay. So they have really started showing up everywhere all the sudden. I haven't seen a dollar coin in years. Though maybe because I just don't pay in cash much anywhere.
- human20190310 7y ago
  Americans develop a "feel" for this, to the point where one can drop a handful of coins on the ground and know the total value just by the sound it makes.
- keiferski 7y ago
  The vast majority of Americans have never read a coin to determine its value. They are all easily distinguishable by size and touch and your average American could identify them 100% of the time while blindfolded. Unfortunately the paper money isn’t similarly touch-friendly.
jacquesm 7y ago
Try Dutch money from before the Euro: https://www.google.com/search?q=oxenaar+geld&client=ubuntu&hs=CCF&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi66PykvrDkAhVEIlAKHbWIAdQQ_AUIESgB&biw=2223&bih=1446#imgrc=E_le9KUif8WW6M https://www.google.com/search?q=oxenaar+geld&client=ubuntu&h...:
- gerdesj 7y ago
  I remember "discovering" the guilder notes back in the '70s. Brit in Germany. Our Sterling and the German DMs were so boring looking in comparison.

leecb 7y ago

To assist people with disabilities, you can request a little electronic reader that clips over the corner of the bill: > the iBill Talking Bank Note Identifier, is now available free of charge from the Treasury Department to any US citizen who is blind or visually impaired. > It can speak the dollar amount; it can produce a different pattern of tones for each denomination; or it can vibrate silently > The United States is the only country that prints all denominations of currency in the same size. The US and Switzerland are the only two countries that use the same colors for all of their various bills. https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technology/accessible-identification-systems-people-who-are-blind-0 https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technolog...

philwelch 7y ago
I believe the $20, $50, and $100 bill are periodically redesigned with accent colors, along with other anti-counterfeiting measures. The $10, $5, $2, and $1 are not valuable enough to be worth counterfeiting so they never redesign them.

soneca 7y ago

I recently moved to the US and I hate its coins. To the point that I consider all of them unusable. When I get home, I leave all the coins that I received as change on a plate by the door, hoping someday I will bring all of them at once somewhere to change for bills (I believe there are machines that do this). My complaints: i) They do not have numbers on them!! You have to read words to know the value ii) To make point i) worse, they have nicknames printed on some of the coins!! They do not write "ten cents", it is "one dime". They do not write "twenty-five cents", they write "quarter dollar" (even the unit here changes) iii) To make points i) and ii) worse, there is no default place where the value is written. $0.01 is a horizontal banner. $0.10 and $0.25 are round-based by the edge of the coin. $0.05 is round-based, but not by the edge of the coin, just slightly above another text that is by the edge. iv) The coins do not obey a coherent progression of value and size. From smallest to largest the coins are: $0.10 < $0.01 < $0.05 < $0.25 v) The colors are all the same, except for the $0.01 coin. So when you have a bunch of coins, you have to properly spread them in your hand to be able to compare their sizes (which is hard when the items are circles), account that there is no size-value correlation, and if you do not remember by size; you have to read a tiny sentence, lost in the middle of several other sentences, with no typographic differentiation of where they are.

jjeaff 7y ago
I have this problem any time I go to another country. Many times they don't even print them in a language I can read! I'm kidding of course. Because usually, even if I'm only in a place for a week or two, I'll have it figured out and it's not a problem. I mean, there are only really 4 options. 1, 5, 10, and 25 cents. And I can't remember the last time I used change to buy something.
- iamnotacrook 7y ago
  "I mean, there are only really 4 options. 1, 5, 10, and 25 cents." Really 5 - I got a dollar coin. Apparently they're rare although I didn't handle a lot of cash and I got one on the second or third day I was there so...not that rare then. I used my UK contactless card. It was funny because in a lot of places they'd never seen one and kept telling me to insert or even swipe it - something I've not done for years in the UK. When the tap didn't work once it was amusing handing the card to the cashier and watching him repeatedly swipe the card and then enter the long card number, expiry date etc like it was a cardholder-not-present transaction!
  - jjeaff 7y ago
    The tap cards are using the same tech as apple and Google pay. So they have really started showing up everywhere all the sudden. I haven't seen a dollar coin in years. Though maybe because I just don't pay in cash much anywhere.
human20190310 7y ago
Americans develop a "feel" for this, to the point where one can drop a handful of coins on the ground and know the total value just by the sound it makes.
keiferski 7y ago
The vast majority of Americans have never read a coin to determine its value. They are all easily distinguishable by size and touch and your average American could identify them 100% of the time while blindfolded. Unfortunately the paper money isn’t similarly touch-friendly.

jacquesm 7y ago

Try Dutch money from before the Euro: https://www.google.com/search?q=oxenaar+geld&client=ubuntu&hs=CCF&channel=fs&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi66PykvrDkAhVEIlAKHbWIAdQQ_AUIESgB&biw=2223&bih=1446#imgrc=E_le9KUif8WW6M https://www.google.com/search?q=oxenaar+geld&client=ubuntu&h...:

gerdesj 7y ago
I remember "discovering" the guilder notes back in the '70s. Brit in Germany. Our Sterling and the German DMs were so boring looking in comparison.