United States of America 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Louis Braille
2009 Proof Silver Dollar 38.1mm (26.73 grams) 0.900 Silver KM# 455 L I B E R T Y IN GOD WE TRUST 1809 2009 P LOUIS BRAILLE, Portrait of Louis Braille facing. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ⠄⠃⠗⠇ (The word “Braille” abbreviated “BRL”) E PLURIBUS UNUM ONE DOLLARั , A child reading a Braille book with a bookcase in the background bearing the word “Independence”.
Coin Notes:
The United States Mint issued the 2009 Louis Braille Silver Dollar to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth. Louis Braille is the inventor of the Braille system of reading and writing for the blind and visually impaired. The silver dollar contained the first readable Braille characters to appear on a legal tender United States coin.
The United States Mint began sales of the 2009 Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollars on March 26, 2009. Both the proof and uncirculated versions of the coin were produced at the Philadelphia Mint. Coins were sold individually, with an easy open capsule available for the uncirculated version. Later in the year, the US Mint released the Braille Education Set, which included the uncirculated version of the coin, educational material about the Braille System, and examples of readable Braille.
The maximum authorized mintage across all product options was 400,000. Coin sales ended on December 11, 2009 before the maximum level was reached. Surcharges added to the cost of each coin were paid to the National Federation for the Blind to further programs to promote Braille literacy.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Louis Braille (4 January 1809 – 6 January 1852) was a French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for use by the blind or visually impaired. His system remains virtually unchanged to this day, and is known worldwide simply as braille.
Blinded in both eyes as a result of an early childhood accident, Louis Braille mastered his disability while still a boy. He excelled in his education and received a scholarship to France’s Royal Institute for Blind Youth. While still a student there, he began developing a system of tactile code that could allow blind people to read and write quickly and efficiently. Inspired by the military cryptography of Charles Barbier, Braille constructed a new method built specifically for the needs of the blind. He presented his work to his peers for the first time in 1824.
In adulthood, Louis Braille served as a professor at the Institute and had an avocation as a musician, but he largely spent the remainder of his life refining and extending his system. It went unused by most educators for many years after his death, but posterity has recognized braille as a revolutionary invention, and it has been adapted for use in languages worldwide.
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