The new Alabama state quarter is out now. It’s a nice quarter honoring the blind pioneer Helen Keller. It’s the first circulating coin in the U.S. to contain Braille.
But the “Spirit of Courage” banner over Helen Keller’s legs makes her legs look like they are cut off. It’s like she’s a paraplegic, especially with the “Spirt of Courage” on there.
I suggest a slight redesign where the banner is moved up higher and slightly bigger. Not only will this make it seem like she has some legs, but it will help to visually unify the pine branch on the left and the magnolias on the right.
she was deaf too.
I’m not sure either work that well.
Regardless, the Illinois quarter is still the worst design so far.
i think that helps it quite a bit. Though i’m not sure why they put so many dang wrinkles in her shirt. It’s very distracting. Though it’s a nice design compared to some of the politically-motivated-cram-as-much-crap-into-one-design-to-make-everyone-happy quarters out there.
i like the braille.
what’s illinois’s quarter look like? i haven’t seen one yet.
I think your redesign is better but the whole concept is still problematic – why couldn’t they show a profile or just a headshot like they do with everyone else, with symbols (a book, maybe) in the background or surrounding area?
It seems so wierd that other coins don’t have braille…
ooooh, that would be neat. braille on all coins. that would be really nice. though i don’t think blind people really need braille on coins. they are embossed differently after all and they have different thicknesses. After years of traveling the tollway I have become very adapt at determining a coin by the first touch, whether it be the side of the coin, or back of the coin, or the front of th coin. It’s a fun game to play.
they are showing more than just her head because she is shown reading a braille book. it wouldn’t be as effective if they just showed a book without her interacting with it.
it’s interesting that American coins don’t really rely on color to differentiate themselves, more on size and textures. i know the Euro has different colors for different coins, and even different combinations of colors on single coins. this would be no use to blind people. we have a copper penny, and the rest are silver-colored.
Different colored-coins?! That’s just way far out! It’s like when i saw color keys in the hardware store. It nearly blew me outta my socks!
Blew you out of your socks? Does that mean you didn’t have wild dreams that night!?