"half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR

[William Donzelli]

> US currency is very confusing to me. All the notes seem to be the same
> size and colour, so you can't readily sort them. I mean, I know
> America doesn't believe in helping people when they're sick, but it
> wasn't until I visited that I realised you saved up particular hatred
> for the blind and partially-sighted and went out of your way to make
> life more difficult for them.

Your knowledge is way out of date. US currency changed about twenty
years ago, partially to benefit the blind. Other than the one dollar
note, they all now have much larger portraits, big plain numbers on
the back, and subtle color variations. There is a tradeoff in the
design - the mint makes them distinctive enough for the blind, yet
identical enough to force people to actually look at the notes.

Additionally, the newer brass color dollar coins are fairly successful
with the blind. They have a distinct color and edge, which does make
them very easy to distinguish from the Quarter, unlike the earlier
Susan B Anthony coin.

--
Will