Believe it or not, a coin has six distinct features by which a blind person can identify it: size, thickness, shape (not all are entirely round) pattern of grooves round the edge, the sound it makes when dropped onto a table and the raised picture on the face.
One, two, three, four or five raised diamond shapes in the middle of the bottom half of the new South African bank notes enable blind people to identify them as R10, R20, R50, R100 and R200 respectively. The notes are also different lengths.
For the benefit of the partially sighted, the Reserve Bank has introduced geometric shapes on the front of the banknotes. The R10 note features a diamond, the R20 a square, the R50 a circle, the R100 a 'flat' hexagon and the R200 a 'honeycomb' hexagon.
For quick and easy reference, plastic coin selectors and money templates (to measure banknotes) are available from Council's Resource Centre.
