First Braille Coin Unveiled

Only 1 in 10 people who are blind can read it

(NEWSER) - Braille's battle to avoid the fate of the Dodo is a long-running one: In the 1950s, more than 50% of the blind learned it; today, that figure is down to just 10%. And smartphones are just making matters worse, reports NPR . It takes a look at the life of a blind 19-year-old who relies on his iPhone for the things you'd expect—email, texting—but also as a set of eyes. One app allows him to pass a bill under his camera to learn its value. But there's a cost. "All through elementary school I used Braille," he explains. "But when I got a laptop, I switched over and I went away from Braille. If you don't use it, you lose it. And that's what happened to me." More»

Many resistant to changing small change

(NEWSER) - President Obama's plan to save $100 million a year by making pennies and nickels from cheaper material may seem like a no-brainer, but the idea of changing the country's small change isn't an easy one to swallow for some. Laundromat owners, zinc lobbyists, and the many Americans who mistakenly believe the value of the metal in their currency determines its worth are expected to rally against the proposed changes, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Literally—it was on Atlantis spaceflight

(NEWSER) - By the time the coin in this year's Super Bowl lands heads or tails tonight, it will have more than 4 million miles under its belt, reports Space.com . The gold-plated coin accompanied shuttle Atlantis on its 11-day mission in November, and is the first to have flown in space that will be used in a Super Bowl. The mint that produced it will release 10,000 duplicates. More»

(NEWSER) - Less than 10% of blind Americans know how to read Braille, and just 10% of blind children are being taught the printed language, the AP reports. A study by the National Federation of the Blind also pegs Braille illiteracy to unemployment. While the blind population faces 70% unemployment overall, that number drops to 44% in Braille readers. More»

Capital honors native son with commemorative coin

(NEWSER) - Late jazz legend Duke Ellington has been chosen to appear on the District of Columbia's commemorative quarter, CNN reports. The composer and performer, a DC native who died in 1975, beat out abolitionist Frederick Douglass and surveyor and astronomer Benjamin Banneker in a vote of the capital's residents. Ellington becomes one of very few African Americans ever to appear on a US coin. More»