I 

109TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2872

To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration 

of Louis Braille. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 13, 2005

Mr. NEY (for himself and Mr. CARDIN) introduced the following bill; which 

was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

A BILL

To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins 

in commemoration of Louis Braille.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Louis Braille Bicenten5 nial—Braille Literacy Commemorative Coin Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds as follows: 

8 (1) Louis Braille, who invented the Braille 

9 method for reading and writing by the blind that has 

10 allowed millions of blind people to be literate partici-
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1 pants in their societies, was born in Coupvray, a 

2 small village near Paris, on January 4, 1809. 

3 (2) Braille lost his sight at the age of three 

4 after injuring himself with an awl in the shop of his 

5 father Rene, a maker of harnesses and other objects 

6 of leather. 

7 (3) A youth who was both intelligent and cre8 ative and was blessed with dedicated parents, a 

9 thoughtful local priest and an energetic local school10 teacher, Braille adapted to the situation and at11 tended local school with other youths of his age, an 

12 unheard-of practice for a blind child of the period. 

13 (4) At the age of 10, when his schooling other14 wise would have stopped, Braille—with the aid of 

15 the priest and schoolteacher—was given a scholar16 ship by a local nobleman and went to Paris to at17 tend the Royal Institute for Blind Children where he 

18 became the youngest pupil. 

19 (5) At the school, most instruction was oral but 

20 Braille found there were books for the blind—large, 

21 expensive-to-produce books in which the text was of 

22 large letters embossed upon the page. 

23 (6) Soon Braille had read all 14 books in the 

24 school, but thirsted for more. 
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1 (7) A captain in Napoleon’s army, Charles 

2 Barbier de la Serre, had invented ‘‘night writing’’, a 

3 method for communicating on the battlefield amidst 

4 the thick smoke of combat or at night without light5 ing a match—which would aid enemy gunners—that 

6 used dots and dashes that were felt and interpreted 

7 with the fingers, and later adapted the method for 

8 use by the blind, calling it Sonography because it 

9 represented words by sounds, rather than spelling. 

10 (8) Braille adopted the Sonography method in11 stantly but soon recognized that the basis in sound 

12 and the large number of dots—as many as 12— 

13 used to represent words was too cumbersome. 

14 (9) By the age of 15, and using a blunt awl, 

15 the same sort of tool that had blinded him, Braille 

16 had developed what is essentially modern Braille, a 

17 code that uses no more than 6 dots in a ‘‘cell’’ of 

18 2 columns of 3 dots each to represent each letter 

19 and contains a system of punctuation and of ‘‘con20 tractions’’ to speed writing and reading. 

21 (10) In contrast to the bulky books consisting 

22 of large embossed letters, Braille books can contain 

23 as many as 1000 characters or contractions on a 

24 standard 11-by-12-inch page of heavy paper, and to 

25 this day Braille can be punched with an awl-like 
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1 ‘‘stylus’’ into paper held in a metal ‘‘slate’’ that is 

2 very similar to the ones that Louis Braille adapted 

3 from Barbier’s original ‘‘night writing’’ devices. 

4 (11) Also a talented organist who supported 

5 himself by giving concerts, Braille went on to de6 velop the Braille representation of music and in 

7 1829 published the first-ever Braille book, a manual 

8 about how to read and write music. 

9 (12) 8 years later, in 1837, Braille followed 

10 that publication with another book detailing a sys11 tem of representation of mathematics. 

12 (13) Braille’s talents were quickly recognized, 

13 and at 17 he was made the first blind apprentice 

14 teacher at the school, where he taught algebra, 

15 grammar, music, and geography. 

16 (14) He and two blind classmates, his friends 

17 who probably were the first people to learn to read 

18 and write Braille, later became the first three blind 

19 full professors at the school. 

20 (15) However, despite the fact that many blind 

21 people enthusiastically adopted the system of writing 

22 and reading, there was great skepticism among 

23 sighted people about the real usefulness of Braille’s 

24 code, and even at the Royal Institute, it was not 

25 taught until after his death on January 6, 1852. 
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1 (16) Braille did not start to spread widely until 

2 1868 when a group of British men—later to become 

3 known as the Royal National Institute for the 

4 Blind—began publicizing and teaching the system. 

5 (17) Braille did not become the official and sole 

6 method of reading and writing for blind United 

7 States citizens until the 20th Century. 

8 (18) Helen Keller, a Braille reader of another 

9 generation, said: ‘‘Braille has been a most precious 

10 aid to me in many ways. It made my going to college 

11 possible—it was the only method by which I could 

12 take notes on lectures. All my examination papers 

13 were copied for me in this system. I use Braille as 

14 a spider uses its web—to catch thoughts that flit 

15 across my mind for speeches, messages and manu16 scripts.’’. 

17 (19) While rapid technological advances in the 

18 20th Century have greatly aided the blind in many 

19 ways by speeding access to information, each ad20 vance has seen a commensurate drop in the teaching 

21 of Braille, to the point that only about 10 percent 

22 of blind students today are taught the system. 

23 (20) However, for the blind not to know Braille 

24 is in itself a handicap, because literacy is the ability 
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1 to read and the ability to write and the ability to do 

2 the two interactively. 

3 (21) The National Federation of the Blind, the 

4 Nation’s oldest membership organization consisting 

5 of blind members, has been a champion of the 

6 Braille code, of Braille literacy for all blind people 

7 and of the memory of Louis Braille, and continues 

8 its Braille literacy efforts today through its divisions 

9 emphasizing Braille literacy, emphasizing education 

10 of blind children and emphasizing employment of the 

11 blind. 

12 (22) Braille literacy aids the blind in taking re13 sponsible and self-sufficient roles in society, such as 

14 employment: while 70 percent of the blind are unem15 ployed, 85 percent of the employed blind are Braille16 literate. 

17 SEC. 3. COIN SPECIFICATIONS. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of the Treasury 

19 (hereafter in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 

20 mint and issue not more than 400,000 $1 coins bearing 

21 the designs specified in section 4(a), each of which shall—

22 (1) weigh 26.73 grams; 

23 (2) have a diameter of 1.500 inches; and 

24 (3) contain 90 percent silver and 10 percent 

25 copper. 
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1 (b) LEGAL TENDER.—The coins minted under this 

2 Act shall be legal tender, as provided in section 5103 of 

3 title 31, United States Code. 

4 (c) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of section 

5 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all coins minted 

6 under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

7 SEC. 4. DESIGN OF COINS. 

8 (a) DESIGN REQUIREMENTS.—

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—The design of the coins 

10 minted under this Act shall be emblematic of the life 

11 and legacy of Louis Braille. 

12 (2) OBVERSE.—The design on the obverse shall 

13 bear a representation of the image of Louis Braille. 

14 (3) REVERSE.—The design on the reverse shall 

15 emphasize Braille literacy and shall specifically in16 clude the word for Braille in Braille code (the 

17 Braille capital sign and the letters Brl) represented 

18 in a way that complies with section 3 of Specifica19 tion 800 of the National Library Service for the 

20 Blind and Physically Handicapped of the Library of 

21 Congress specifications for Braille, and is tactilely 

22 indiscernible from printed or written Braille. 

23 (4) DESIGNATION AND INSCRIPTIONS.—On 

24 each coin minted under this Act there shall be—

25 (A) a designation of the value of the coin; 
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1 (B) an inscription of the year ‘‘2009’’; and 

2 (C) inscriptions of the words ‘‘Liberty’’, 

3 ‘‘In God We Trust’’, ‘‘United States of Amer4 ica’’, and ‘‘E Pluribus Unum’’. 

5 (b) SELECTION.—The design for the coins minted 

6 under this Act shall be—

7 (1) selected by the Secretary after consultation 

8 with the Commission of Fine Arts and the National 

9 Federation of the Blind; and 

10 (2) reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory 

11 Committee. 

12 SEC. 5. ISSUANCE OF COINS. 

13 (a) QUALITY OF COINS.—Coins minted under this 

14 Act shall be issued in uncirculated and proof qualities. 

15 (b) MINT FACILITY.—Only 1 facility of the United 

16 States Mint may be used to strike any particular quality 

17 of the coins minted under this Act. 

18 (c) PERIOD FOR ISSUANCE.—The Secretary may 

19 issue coins minted under this Act only during the 1-year 

20 period beginning on January 1, 2009. 

21 SEC. 6. SALE OF COINS. 

22 (a) SALE PRICE.—The coins issued under this Act 

23 shall be sold by the Secretary at a price equal to the sum 

24 of—

25 (1) the face value of the coins; 
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1 (2) the surcharge provided in section 7(a) with 

2 respect to such coins; and 

3 (3) the cost of designing and issuing the coins 

4 (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, 

5 overhead expenses, marketing, and shipping). 

6 (b) BULK SALES.—The Secretary shall make bulk 

7 sales of the coins issued under this Act at a reasonable 

8 discount. 

9 (c) PREPAID ORDERS.—

10 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall accept 

11 prepaid orders for the coins minted under this Act 

12 before the issuance of such coins. 

13 (2) DISCOUNT.—Sale prices with respect to pre14 paid orders under paragraph (1) shall be at a rea15 sonable discount. 

16 SEC. 7. SURCHARGES. 

17 (a) SURCHARGE REQUIRED.—All sales of coins under 

18 this Act shall include a surcharge of $10 per coin. 

19 (b) DISTRIBUTION.—Subject to section 5134(f) of 

20 title 31, United States Code, all surcharges which are re21 ceived by the Secretary from the sale of coins issued under 

22 this Act shall be promptly paid by the Secretary to the 

23 the National Federation of the Blind to further its pro24 grams to promote Braille literacy. 
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1 (c) AUDITS.—The National Federation of the Blind 

2 shall be subject to the audit requirements of section 

3 5134(f)(2) of title 31, United States Code, with regard 

4 to the amounts received by the National Federation under 

5 subsection (b).

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