The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

American banknotes have numbers on them to easily distinguish the different values!

Not everyone can see.

Australian notes vary in size for this reason.

Which is great if you are fully abled! But for folks for whom sight isn't as strong, additional aids (different colors, different sized banknotes for different denominations) are super helpful.

From dealing with Euro notes, I like being able to look down at the money in the wallet and pull the right notes out based on color. With USD I need to take the bills out of the wallet.

> 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. Needless to say, this sameness of size and color make it impossible for a blind person to locate the correct bills to make a purchase without some sort of assistance, or confirm that he or she has been given the correct change by the sales clerk. Even people with partial sight may have trouble distinguishing a $1 bill from a $10, especially if the bill is old and worn.

https://afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision/using-technology/ac...

That’s a terribly myopic take

It's a bit odd that the mint doesn't emboss the denomination in braille on each note. I'd think that there would be a way to do that and have it hold up pretty well in circulation?

Switzerland has same colors for all of the various bills? As far as I can tell, that has never been true

The unbearable pain of having to handle bills of different sizes, there is not enough empathy in this world to truly pay hommage to your suffering.

And it would be even easier to distinguish them if they were different colors in addition to the printed numerals.

It's primarily done for security and secondarily a benefit making it easier (for everyone!) to identify denomination by feel

Quite the opposite. As a fully abled person I find it incredibly annoying to have to flip through US notes instead of just immediately picking out the right one by size and/or color.

Does the Canadian solution of adding brail to the notes inconvenience you, or is that an acceptable way to make sure that people with disabilities can participate in cash transactions safely?

Does having different sized coins strike you as an inconvenience?

Why does a feature that can be used by anyone, regardless of disability, strike you as "inconvenient for almost everybody"?

What, exactly, is inconvenient about having notes be different sizes?

Or put another way: "Deliberately griefing the experience of a small number of people just to make it marginally more convenient for everyone else."

Braille does not help everyone. Most people with vision issues are not legally lind and do not know braille.

One thing about accessibility and usability, is that when you design something for the minority it tends to make things better for the majority. Take ramps for example, they not only server those in wheel chairs, but also families with strollers and elderly with walkers.

I think I've seen that blind people in the US have a little machine that they can use to add the braille themselves. Also from a quick google search there's also electronic bill readers that can be provided to blind people for free if they qualify.

In Canada the bills are embossed with braille by the mint. There may be other accommodations too, but I haven't looked it up.

God-forbid you ever end up in a minority group.

The ten dollar bill has a somewhat different color than the other currency, somewhat yellowish.

Some currencies also have braille-like embossments so that if you're totally blind, you can still pick out the correct denominations.

Different sized bills are harder to stack in a wallet. Braille is a much better way to handle the problem. No cost to the majority, while solving the problem for the minority.

I’m in a minority group.

Use a wallet with a divider, and sort your bills. Won't have to flip through until you carry several each of five or more denominations. If you regularly do, then use two dividers.

It's wild to see you downvoted. Only about 10% of blind people know braille. There are many more people who have visual impairments but are not blind. Braille is not a universal solution (though I would rather have it than not have it).

You need a week of low-key exposure to learn how each bill is marked.

> The United States is the only country that prints all denominations of currency in the same size

Let me assure you that all Canadian banknotes are the same size too, 6.00 inch × 2.75 inch (152.40 mm × 69.85 mm). I'm not sure how the article got this fact wrong.

As a side note, Canadian banknotes don't have braille, but have an ad hoc system of bumps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_currency_tactile_feat...

> Different sized bills are harder to stack in a wallet.

This has never been my experience. What is the challenge?

Anyone able to feel the dots could learn to distinguish bills this way without learning braille beyond that, regardless of their vision.

Anyone who didn't find the feature useful could ignore it.

But you don't need to know braille to learn how the most common bills are marked.

Just like you don't need to know Japanese to count the exact amount of yen bills.

It seems like having equivalent sized notes is just your personal preference, and that you are projecting that as an inconvenience onto "the majority". Based on the comments it seems like even people without disabilities mostly don't care, or actually think that it is a good feature.

For my side, even if I did agree with your preference, I am perfectly willing to deal with the incredible hardship of slightly different sized notes in my wallet in exchange for a society where disabled people need not fear being ripped off.

This also confused me. The current ones have very distinct colors and also all the previous series used different colors as far as I can tell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Swiss_franc

Crutches and canes can be easier on a ramp, too. Even people with fine balance but limits on movement of the hip, knee, or ankle can benefit.

As long as the largest bills fit and the smallest bills don’t get lost I don’t understand how it’s so much harder.

> I think I've seen that blind people in the US have a little machine that they can use to add the braille themselves.

That solves half the problem, but you still don't know whether you're getting correct change.

All U.S. bills in common circulation (all denominations except $2) have been different colors for 20 years.

> Although similar in appearance to braille, it differs because standard Braille was deemed too sensitive.

Yes. This system is more resistant to wear and tear.

Not braille; see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45904000.

Being fully sighted, I still appreciate it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curb_cut_effect

Unfortunate metaphor in context....

In canada it's "one cluster of dots = $5, two clusters = $10, three = $20" and so on. You just feel the number of dot clusters & count, no braille involved.

This is a joke right?