My mother was telling me about a blind man she knew as a child who worked as a clerk in a candy store. My mother claims that this man could tell the different denominations of paper money just by the touch. She said no one could short change him because he knew the difference between a 5 and a 1 just by feeling them.
Is this possible? I’m not blind, but I’ve tried numerous times to tell the difference between different bills just by touch, and I can’t. The only thing I can come up with is that smaller bills tend to be more worn and crumpled than larger ones, but that’s not consistant enough to use all the time.
Indian currency (Rupees) does have some very slight embossing (if you can call it that) on the edge of the notes which differs for each denomination. It’s bloody hard to figure it out, but it is there.
There’s also the difference in length x breadth for different denominations.
The blind, as I understand, often put different folds in paper currency so they’ll know what it is. For example, they may fold the right corner down on a twenty dollar bill, and on a ten dollar bill, they may fold the left corner, and so on.
Of course, folding doesn’t help when you’re receiving bills from people. After a bit of searching on Google, I’m pretty sure that the blind are at the mercy of the clerk.
I remembered that before the introduction of the euro, the currency of the Netherlands featured Braille markings. A Google search led me to this page, which details the many means (some serendipitous) by which various nations have made their banknotes more usable to the visually impaired.
The new Canadian bills have braille in the corner. To be honest though, they look and feel flattened out to me after a few uses, so I don’t know the long-term usefullness of it.
I knew a blind man at a similar store in Cook County County Building, who apparently was able to tell by feel, but actually brought the money very close to his eyes.
You see, to get the job for the Blind all one has to be is legally blind. To be called blind, all you have to be is legally blind. This does not mean that you are totally blind, but must have vision that is not correctable to 20/200 or better in the better eye. 20/200 is a severe handicap, but stilll the person retains significant vision. Many persons who were born with nerve problems preventing improvement in vision still have some vision, in most cases much worse than 20/200, but still some.
Do we really have no blind dopers? I find that surprising…
Asked a buddy and the answer appears to be “you don’t know”.
She also said that there are devices that will tell you the denomination of banknotes, but she wouldn’t want to use one since she wouldn’t want to announce to the whole store that she has a 50 in her hand and will be unable to identify them.
I guess I should mention that this was in the US, so the denominations are the same size etc. I’m not sure of the degree of the man’s blindness, but my mother assures me that he only felt the bills.
So, is he faking being blind? Is my mom full of shit?
I’m sure he wasn’t faking being blind… legally blind, that is, but may have been faking the degree of blindness. I asked the blind sales clerk I knew if he could see at all, and he really didn’t answer me. Most people who are legally blind retain some vision. Sure, there may be a few who are totally blind, but not many.
Yeah, I’ve checked out the HTML for this message board. It’s not exactly accessible, which is unfortunate. It’s nowhere near the worst site on the web, though.
