"Graeme Wall" wrote in message
...
In message
wrote:

"Graham Murray" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry writes:

In message , at 06:13:27
on Sun, 22 Jun 2008, Charles Ellson
remarked:
Aren't US banknotes also all the same size

Yes, they are.

Does the USA not have disability discrimination legislation? Having all
banknotes the same size is surely discrimination against blind people.

I thought that the US Federal Reserve had added colour to their notes in
recent years, which should help. One would think that they would also put
some form of braille on notes to help delineate. A least one European
states that I can think of had been doing that well before the euro was
introduced.

Holland.


That's right. But didn't Finland and Germany have something as well?

Don't euro notes have a form of braille? I can't remember off hand.



Strangely enough, no.

That is strange.

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 21:08:27 GMT, "Richard J."
wrote:

In France, most cards are debit cards, and it's true that credit cards are
used less than in the UK.

Technically speaking, you are right, of course, but most people refer
to their Visa card as a "carte de crédit", even though it isn't.

The question to Rian (who anyway is in Belgium)

I don't think there was ever any doubt about that.

should be "Wouldn't it have been easier to pay with a debit card?" (rather
than withdrawing unusual amounts of cash from his bank).

Agreed.

In message , at 17:52:02 on Sun, 22
Jun 2008, remarked:
I thought that the US Federal Reserve had added colour to their notes in
recent years, which should help.

I've seen some very pale pink $20 notes. You'd hardly notice it without
the contrast with older cream-coloured ones. Are other denominations
getting different tints?
--
Roland Perry

In message
wrote:

[snip]
A least one European
states that I can think of had been doing that well before the euro was
introduced.

Holland.


That's right. But didn't Finland and Germany have something as well?

Not that I'm aware of.


Don't euro notes have a form of braille? I can't remember off hand.



Strangely enough, no.

That is strange.


Very, it surprised me. I suppose TPTB are relying on blind people being able
to identify the notes by the size.


--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

Graeme Wall writes:
In message
wrote:

That's right. But didn't Finland and Germany have something as well?

Not that I'm aware of.

Finnish banknotes (all the same size) didn't have actual braille but
rather an easily distinguishable pattern of large rings in raised
print specific for each denomination (from one ring in the FIM 10 to
five in the FIM 1000). For instance Estonian banknotes (also all the
same size, and practically the same size as the old Finnish ones) have
similar features indicated with dots and dashes.

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:34:11 +0100, Graeme Wall
wrote:

In message
wrote:

[snip]
A least one European
states that I can think of had been doing that well before the euro was
introduced.

Holland.


That's right. But didn't Finland and Germany have something as well?

Not that I'm aware of.


Don't euro notes have a form of braille? I can't remember off hand.



Strangely enough, no.

That is strange.


Very, it surprised me. I suppose TPTB are relying on blind people being able
to identify the notes by the size.

Size, colour and large numbers seem to be the only official aids for
those with poor eyesight :-
http://www.euro.gov.uk/eurobanknotes.asp

In message
(A R:nen) wrote:

Graeme Wall writes:
In message
wrote:

That's right. But didn't Finland and Germany have something as well?

Not that I'm aware of.

Finnish banknotes (all the same size) didn't have actual braille but
rather an easily distinguishable pattern of large rings in raised
print specific for each denomination (from one ring in the FIM 10 to
five in the FIM 1000). For instance Estonian banknotes (also all the
same size, and practically the same size as the old Finnish ones) have
similar features indicated with dots and dashes.

Never actually come across those, thanks for the information. Just makes it
more surprising that Euros don't.

--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html

wrote:
"Graham Murray" wrote in message
...
Roland Perry writes:

In message , at 06:13:27
on Sun, 22 Jun 2008, Charles Ellson
remarked:
Aren't US banknotes also all the same size
Yes, they are.
Does the USA not have disability discrimination legislation? Having all
banknotes the same size is surely discrimination against blind people.

I thought that the US Federal Reserve had added colour to their notes in
recent years, which should help.

The color (added in 2004) really doesn't help much in practice, since
most of the bills still in circulation don't have it and thus the colors
haven't been absorbed into the public consciousness. Heck, I still
today frequently get "small portrait" bills (last printed in 1993-1995)
in addition to "large portrait" non-color ones (last printed in
2001-2003). And that's in the US, in the same city as a Federal Reserve
Bank; over two thirds of US currency circulates _outside_ the US, where
banks aren't actively replacing old bills with new ones.

You can see images of all modern US currency in its various forms at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_Note

So far, no color $100s have been printed, but that's planned. The $1
bill didn't get a "large portrait" version in the 1990s because they
were supposed to be removed from circulation and replaced with $1 coins,
but special interest groups (mainly vending machine makers/owners) got
that postponed indefinitely. The $2 bill wasn't redesigned simply due
to apathy; there aren't enough of them to matter (less than 1% of all US
bills), and most are kept as collectibles, not circulating currency,
though that might change if/when plans for withdrawing the $1 bill are
finally put into action.

One would think that they would also put some form of braille on notes
to help delineate.

That's tough with our bills since they're cloth (high grade denim,
technically) and not that nearly indestructible plastic/paper stuff used
for most other countries' notes. Braille and cloth don't mix well; even
if you could print the bills with the feature, it'd be ruined after a
few weeks/months in circulation.

S

Charles Ellson wrote:
Aren't US banknotes also all the same size thus making it easier to
accidentally sandwich a high value note in amongst low value notes ?

They're all the same size, yes. Folks do occasionally make mistakes,
but that's not a major concern (other than for the blind) in bill design
compared to anti-counterfeiting features.

One of the old tricks was to take a $1 bill, bleach the ink off, and
print a $100 bill's faces on it. This got around the checks specific to
the material used, since all bills until recently had identical cloth.
Newer bills have security features that prevent that -- if cashiers
bother looking for them.

S

On Sun, 22 Jun 2008 20:58:52 -0500, Stephen Sprunk
wrote in misc.transport.urban-transit:

Charles Ellson wrote:
Aren't US banknotes also all the same size thus making it easier to
accidentally sandwich a high value note in amongst low value notes ?

They're all the same size, yes. Folks do occasionally make mistakes,
but that's not a major concern (other than for the blind) in bill design
compared to anti-counterfeiting features.

But, of course, the Fed was told by the courts that their current
methods are a violation of the law because they don't take the blind
into account.

One of the old tricks was to take a $1 bill, bleach the ink off, and
print a $100 bill's faces on it. This got around the checks specific to
the material used, since all bills until recently had identical cloth.
Newer bills have security features that prevent that -- if cashiers
bother looking for them.

S