The new golden $1 coin might look different enough from the quarter, but blind people the Daily News asked to try to tell them apart said there wasn't enough difference between the way the two coins feel.
During a touch and feel test of the U.S. Mint's latest offering, staff at the American Foundation for the Blind said they could tell the new dollar from a quarter, but it wasn't easy. More should have been done to distinguish the new coin, they said.
"They had an opportunity to really make this coin distinct but they really didn't," said Marc Grossman, 34, who helps companies make their products accessible to the visually impaired. "They could have made the ridge taller, they could have put something in the middle to give it some sort of distinction. "It's not impossible but I think it will just take some getting used to."
"I would rather they were a little bigger," said Jay Leventhal, 48, editor in chief of Accessibility World magazine. "It would be good if they were a bit more different but I think I could tell them apart. "It's a little harder with newer quarters."
The feel of money has become something of a sore issue for the government, though the problem hasn't been coins - it has been paper bills. The U.S. Treasury Department is currently appealing a ruling that could force a redesign of American bank notes so they can be distinguished by the blind or visually impaired.
A U.S. district judge ordered the government to vary the sizes of denominations or add micro-perforations so those with little or no vision can tell them apart.
The government argues the move would be too expensive and cause undue hardship to the vending machine industry.
Originally published on February 17, 2007Created on ... February 21, 2007