II 

Calendar No. 475 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2321 

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

of Louis Braille. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 17, 2006 

Mr. SANTORUM (for himself, Mr. DODD, Mr. BENNETT, Ms. LANDRIEU, Mr. 

DEWINE, Mr. LOTT, Mr. BUNNING, Mr. HATCH, Mr. BURNS, Mr. 

INHOFE, Mr. MENENDEZ, Mr. LAUTENBERG, Mr. LIEBERMAN, Mrs. 

CLINTON, Mr. SCHUMER, Ms. STABENOW, Mr. DAYTON, Mr. GRASSLEY, 

Mr. CRAIG, Mr. BURR, Mr. CRAPO, Mrs. LINCOLN, Mr. HARKIN, Mr. 

VITTER, Mr. WYDEN, Mr. BINGAMAN, Ms. MIKULSKI, Mr. LEVIN, Mrs. 

BOXER, Mr. AKAKA, Mr. BAUCUS, Mr. DURBIN, Mr. DOMENICI, Mr. 

REED, Mr. LUGAR, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. INOUYE, Mr. KERRY, Mr. BIDEN, 

Mr. BAYH, Ms. CANTWELL, Ms. COLLINS, Mr. SPECTER, Mr. MARTINEZ, 

Mr. TALENT, Mr. BOND, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. CHAFEE, Ms. SNOWE, Mr. 

NELSON of Nebraska, Mr. VOINOVICH, Mr. CHAMBLISS, Mr. ISAKSON, 

Mr. PRYOR, Mr. DORGAN, Mrs. DOLE, Mr. THOMAS, Mr. DEMINT, Mr. 

KYL, Mr. NELSON of Florida, Mr. REID, Mr. HAGEL, Mr. COCHRAN, Mr. 

BROWNBACK, Mr. ALLEN, Mr. ROBERTS, Mrs. MURRAY, Mr. SMITH, Mr. 

ALLARD, Mr. SALAZAR, Mr. WARNER, and Mr. SESSIONS) introduced the 

following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 

Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs 

JUNE 21, 2006 

Reported by Mr. Shelby, without amendment 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins 

in commemoration of Louis Braille. 
2 

•S 2321 RS

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 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 partici11 pants in their societies, was born in Coupvray, a 

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

13 (2) Braille lost his sight at the age of 3, after 

14 injuring himself with an awl in the shop of his fa15 ther Rene, a maker of harnesses and other objects 

16 of leather. 

17 (3) A youth who was both intelligent and cre18 ative, Braille was blessed with dedicated parents, a 

19 thoughtful local priest, and an energetic local school20 teacher. 

21 (4) Braille adapted to his situation and at22 tended local school with other children of his age, an 

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

24 (5) At the age of 10, when his schooling other25 wise would have stopped, Braille, with the aid of his 
3 

•S 2321 RS

1 priest and schoolteacher, was given a scholarship by 

2 a local nobleman and went to Paris to attend the 

3 Royal Institute for Blind Children, where he became 

4 the youngest pupil. 

5 (6) At the Institute, most instruction was oral 

6 but Braille found there were books for the blind, 

7 large, expensive-to-produce books, in which the text 

8 was of large letters embossed upon the page. 

9 (7) Soon, Braille had read all 14 books in the 

10 school, but thirsted for more. 

11 (8) Charles Barbier de la Serre, a captain in 

12 Napoleon’s army, had invented ‘‘night writing’’, a 

13 method for communicating on the battlefield amidst 

14 the thick smoke of combat, or at night without light15 ing a match (which would aid enemy gunners), that 

16 used dots and dashes that were felt and interpreted 

17 with the fingers. He later adapted the method for 

18 use by the blind, calling it ‘‘Sonography’’, because it 

19 represented words by sounds, rather than spelling. 

20 (9) Braille adopted the Sonography method in21 stantly, but soon recognized that the basis in sound 

22 and the large number of dots, as many as 12, used 

23 to represent words was too cumbersome. 

24 (10) By the age of 15, and using a blunt awl, 

25 the same sort of tool that had blinded him, Braille 
4 

•S 2321 RS

1 had developed what is essentially modern Braille, a 

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

3 2 columns of 3 dots each to represent each letter, 

4 and contains a system of punctuation and of ‘‘con5 tractions’’ to speed writing and reading. 

6 (11) In contrast to the bulky books consisting 

7 of large embossed letters, Braille books can contain 

8 as many as 1,000 characters or contractions on a 

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

10 this day, Braille can be punched with an awl-like 

11 ‘‘stylus’’ into paper held in a metal ‘‘slate’’ that is 

12 very similar to the ones that Louis Braille adapted 

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

14 (12) Also a talented organist who supported 

15 himself by giving concerts, Braille went on to de16 velop the Braille representation of music, and in 

17 1829, published the first-ever Braille book, a manual 

18 about how to read and write music. 

19 (13) 8 years later, in 1837, Braille followed 

20 that publication with another book detailing a sys21 tem of representation of mathematics. 

22 (14) Braille’s talents were quickly recognized, 

23 and at age 17, he was made the first blind appren24 tice teacher at the school, where he taught algebra, 

25 grammar, music, and geography. 
5 

•S 2321 RS

1 (15) He and 2 blind classmates, his friends who 

2 probably were the first people to learn to read and 

3 write Braille, later became the first 3 blind full pro4 fessors at the school. 

5 (16) However, despite the fact that many blind 

6 people enthusiastically adopted the system of writing 

7 and reading, there was great skepticism among 

8 sighted people about the real usefulness of Braille’s 

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

10 taught until after his death on January 6, 1852. 

11 (17) Braille did not start to spread widely until 

12 1868 when a group of British men, later to become 

13 known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind, 

14 began publicizing and teaching the system. 

15 (18) Braille did not become the official and sole 

16 method of reading and writing for blind United 

17 States citizens until the 20th Century. 

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

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

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

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

22 take notes on lectures. All my examination papers 

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

24 a spider uses its web—to catch thoughts that flit 
6 

•S 2321 RS

1 across my mind for speeches, messages, and manu2 scripts.’’. 

3 (20) While rapid technological advances in the 

4 20th Century have greatly aided the blind in many 

5 ways by speeding access to information, each ad6 vance has seen a commensurate drop in the teaching 

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

8 of blind students today are taught the system. 

9 (21) However, for the blind not to know Braille 

10 is in itself a handicap, because literacy is the ability 

11 to read and the ability to write and the ability to do 

12 the 2 interactively. 

13 (22) The National Federation of the Blind, the 

14 Nation’s oldest membership organization consisting 

15 of blind members, has been a champion of the 

16 Braille code, of Braille literacy for all blind people, 

17 and of the memory of Louis Braille, and continues 

18 its Braille literacy efforts today through its divisions 

19 emphasizing Braille literacy, education of blind chil20 dren, and employment of the blind. 

21 (23) Braille literacy aids the blind in taking re22 sponsible and self-sufficient roles in society, such as 

23 employment. While 70 percent of the blind are un24 employed, 85 percent of the employed blind are 

25 Braille-literate. 
7 

•S 2321 RS

1 SEC. 3. COIN SPECIFICATIONS. 

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

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

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

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

6 (1) weigh 26.73 grams; 

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

8 (3) contain 90 percent silver and 10 percent 

9 copper. 

10 (b) LEGAL TENDER.—The coins minted under this 

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

12 title 31, United States Code. 

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

14 5134 of title 31, United States Code, all coins minted 

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

16 SEC. 4. DESIGN OF COINS. 

17 (a) DESIGN REQUIREMENTS.— 

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

19 minted under this Act shall be emblematic of the life 

20 and legacy of Louis Braille. 

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

22 bear a representation of the image of Louis Braille. 

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

24 emphasize Braille literacy, and shall specifically in25 clude the word for Braille in Braille code (the 

26 Braille capital sign and the letters Brl) represented 
8 

•S 2321 RS

1 in a way that complies with section 3 of specification 

2 800 of the National Library Service for the Blind 

3 and Physically Handicapped of the Library of Con4 gress specifications for Braille, and is tactilely indis5 cernible from printed or written Braille. 

6 (4) DESIGNATION AND INSCRIPTIONS.—On 

7 each coin minted under this Act, there shall be— 

8 (A) a designation of the value of the coin; 

9 (B) an inscription of the year ‘‘2009’’; and 

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

11 ‘‘In God We Trust’’, ‘‘United States of Amer12 ica’’, and ‘‘E Pluribus Unum’’. 

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

14 under this Act shall be— 

15 (1) selected by the Secretary, after consultation 

16 with the Commission of Fine Arts and the National 

17 Federation of the Blind; and 

18 (2) reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory 

19 Committee. 

20 SEC. 5. ISSUANCE OF COINS. 

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

22 Act shall be issued in uncirculated and proof qualities. 

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

24 States Mint may be used to strike any particular quality 

25 of the coins minted under this Act. 
9 

•S 2321 RS

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

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

3 period beginning on January 1, 2009. 

4 SEC. 6. SALE OF COINS. 

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

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

7 of— 

8 (1) the face value of the coins; 

9 (2) the surcharge provided in section 7(a) with 

10 respect to such coins; and 

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

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

13 overhead expenses, marketing, and shipping). 

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

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

16 discount. 

17 (c) PREPAID ORDERS.— 

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

19 prepaid orders for the coins minted under this Act 

20 before the issuance of such coins. 

21 (2) DISCOUNT.—Sale prices with respect to pre22 paid orders under paragraph (1) shall be at a rea23 sonable discount. 
10 

•S 2321 RS

1 SEC. 7. SURCHARGES. 

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

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

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

5 title 31, United States Code, all surcharges which are re6 ceived by the Secretary from the sale of coins issued under 

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

8 National Federation of the Blind, to further its programs 

9 to promote Braille literacy. 

10 (c) AUDITS.—The National Federation of the Blind 

11 shall be subject to the audit requirements of section 

12 5134(f)(2) of title 31, United States Code, with regard 

13 to the amounts received by the National Federation of the 

14 Blind under subsection (b). 

Calendar No. 475 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 2321 

A BILL 

To require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint 

coins in commemoration of Louis Braille. 

JUNE 21, 2006 

Reported without amendment