Thursday, May 28, 2009

To See or Not To See

I had a great-uncle DeWitt who lost his vision in a sawmill accident when he was young. At some point in his life thereafter he acquired a silver dollar, which he liked to hold in his hand and rub.

When I was young I lived across the street from Billy Flanders, whose parents ran vending machine racks. They collected coins, and since I was exposed to the hobby, I started collecting coins as well. In those days, one could actually find interesting coins in circulation. Today the only interesting coin in circulation is a wheat penny.

Since I was the coin collector in the family, I wound up with several notable coins, including Indian head pennies from my Mother's Mother's house, a 1909 VDB penny from my Father's Mother's penny jar (the penny has subsequently disappeared), and Uncle DeWitt's silver dollar. Uncle DeWitt rubbed a lot of the surface off that coin.

This leads to the latest commorative offering from the U.S. Mint, the Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar.



I believe this qualifies as "irony." Commerative Coins are made to be looked at, not handled, especially proof coins. Braille, I figure, is meant to be felt, not seen.

3 comments:

  1. Imagine DeWitt's thrill if his silver dollar had had those Braille bumps. Wonder what that coin says?
    They give out those coin dollar things as change at the Marta stations. Those really throw off the coin holders. No spot for a dollar. They wind up getting spent as quarters.
    We save our change in a 5# coffee can and hand roll it once a year, before a vacation, then spend the money on a nice dinner. Some restaurants are not keen on rolled coins as payment though...

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  2. BTW: Nice rendering of the golden nut.

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  3. Weird. Can't you feel it a little bit? Don't the blind have extra spidey sense in their fingertips so they can experience the numismatic artistry for themselves?

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