Louis Braille Bicentennial - Braille Literacy Commemorative Coin Act

The Louis Braille Bicentennial - Braille Literacy Commemorative Coin Act of 2006, began its journey in the House of Representatives on June 13, 2005, as House Resolution 2872 during the first session of the 109th Congress. Introduced by Robert Ney (R-OH) and co-sponsored by Ben Cardin (D-MD), the proposal to strike a commemorative dollar in honor of the native of France who gave the world's blind the means to read and write was introduced four years in advance of the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth in 1809.

Unlike some of the brief historical context "Findings" sections in other bills proposing modern commemorative coins [See the Commems Collection Modern entry detailing the Congressional Phase of the Jamestown 400th Anniversary HERE for an example of a succinct citation], the Braille coin proposal provided a detailed overview of Louis Braille's challenges and achievements:

"The Congress finds as follows:

1) Louis Braille, who invented the Braille method for reading and writing by the blind that has allowed millions of blind people to be literate participants in their societies, was born in Coupvray, a small village near Paris, on January 4, 1809.

2) Braille lost his sight at the age of three after injuring himself with an awl in the shop of his father Rene, a maker of harnesses and other objects of leather.

3) A youth who was both intelligent and creative and was blessed with dedicated parents, a thoughtful local priest and an energetic local schoolteacher, Braille adapted to the situation and attended local school with other youths of his age, an unheard-of practice for a blind child of the period.

4) At the age of 10, when his schooling otherwise would have stopped, Braille--with the aid of the priest and schoolteacher--was given a scholarship by a local nobleman and went to Paris to attend the Royal Institute for Blind Children where he became the youngest pupil.

5) At the school, most instruction was oral but Braille found there were books for the blind--large, expensive-to- produce books in which the text was of large letters embossed upon the page.

6) Soon Braille had read all 14 books in the school, but thirsted for more.

7) A captain in Napoleon's army, Charles Barbier de la Serre, had invented ``night writing'', a method for communicating on the battlefield amidst the thick smoke of combat or at night without lighting a match--which would aid enemy gunners--that used dots and dashes that were felt and interpreted with the fingers, and later adapted the method for use by the blind, calling it Sonography because it represented words by sounds, rather than spelling.

8) Braille adopted the Sonography method instantly but soon recognized that the basis in sound and the large number of dots--as many as 12--used to represent words was too cumbersome.

9) By the age of 15, and using a blunt awl, the same sort of tool that had blinded him, Braille had developed what is essentially modern Braille, a code that uses no more than 6 dots in a ``cell'' of 2 columns of 3 dots each to represent each letter and contains a system of punctuation and of ``contractions'' to speed writing and reading.

10) In contrast to the bulky books consisting of large embossed letters, Braille books can contain as many as 1000 characters or contractions on a standard 11-by-12-inch page of heavy paper, and to this day Braille can be punched with an awl-like "stylus'' into paper held in a metal ``slate'' that is very similar to the ones that Louis Braille adapted from Barbier's original "night writing'' devices.

11) Also a talented organist who supported himself by giving concerts, Braille went on to develop the Braille representation of music and in 1829 published the first-ever Braille book, a manual about how to read and write music.

12) 8 years later, in 1837, Braille followed that publication with another book detailing a system of representation of mathematics.

13) Braille's talents were quickly recognized, and at 17 he was made the first blind apprentice teacher at the school, where he taught algebra, grammar, music, and geography.

14) He and two blind classmates, his friends who probably were the first people to learn to read and write Braille, later became the first three blind full professors at the school.

15) However, despite the fact that many blind people enthusiastically adopted the system of writing and reading, there was great skepticism among sighted people about the real usefulness of Braille's code, and even at the Royal Institute, it was not taught until after his death on January 6, 1852.

16) Braille did not start to spread widely until 1868 when a group of British men--later to become known as the Royal National Institute for the Blind--began publicizing and teaching the system.

17) Braille did not become the official and sole method of reading and writing for blind United States citizens until the 20th Century.

18) Helen Keller, a Braille reader of another generation, said: "Braille has been a most precious aid to me in many ways. It made my going to college possible--it was the only method by which I could take notes on lectures. All my examination papers were copied for me in this system. I use Braille as a spider uses its web--to catch thoughts that flit across my mind for speeches, messages and manuscripts.''.

19) While rapid technological advances in the 20th Century have greatly aided the blind in many ways by speeding access to information, each advance has seen a commensurate drop in the teaching of Braille, to the point that only about 10 percent of blind students today are taught the system.

20) Braille literacy aids the blind in taking responsible and self-sufficient roles in society, such as employment: while 70 percent of the blind are unemployed, 85 percent of the employed blind are Braille-literate."

Perhaps the lengthy recital was viewed as necessary by the Resolution's authors as very few Congressmen would be familiar with Braille's unique background and the impact of his inventions. Moreover, listing the scope of Braille's accomplishments may have contributed to eventual acceptance and approval by Congress of an American commemorative coin for a French citizen who never visited the United States. The resolution was very specific regarding the design of the coin:


On July 29, 2005, the HR was referred to the Committee on Financial Services' Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology. Seven months later, H.R. 2872 passed out of committee without discussion and was brought to the floor during the 109th Congress' 2nd Session, on February 28, 2006 with 308 additional co-sponsors-- including the entire Maryland delegation. This overwhelming bi-partisan support foreshadowed the passage by voice vote ( following remarks in support of the measure delivered by Bob Ney, Barney Frank (D-MA), Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Ben Cardin, and Committee on Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley (R-OH) that same afternoon.

The Senate version of the Bill, S. 2321, was introduced February 17, 2006, by Rick Santorum (R-PA), co-sponsored by Christopher Dodd (D-CT), and twenty others. By May 22nd, the number of co-sponsors totaled 64; when the Senate passed the legislation by unanimous consent on June 29th, there were 71 co-sponsors.

President George W. Bush signed the Act into law on July 27, 2006, without offering any remarks. POTUS news coverage of that day turned its attention to presidential signings of: a) The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act and, b) The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization Act, signing ceremonies that featured extensive remarks by the President as documented in the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents issued July 31, 2006. Mr. Bush's calendar that day also included a lengthy address to the National Association of Manufacturers.

For Information and images of the coins, see The Coin