The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

> 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...

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

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

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.

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

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...

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.

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

> 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.

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.

> Let me assure you that all Canadian banknotes are the same size too [...] not sure how the article got this fact wrong.

Because Canada is just part of the U.S.

(flame away)

Chiming in to complain that a good, working solution to a problem just doesn't happen to solve ALL PROBLEMS is just banality or perhaps pedantry. Unless it was also proposing an alternative that might do better...