[oregon-l] Fw: [leadership] the new $100 bill

[John A. Fleming]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Melanie Brunson
To: leadership at acb.org
Cc: acb-l at acb.org
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 10:29 AM
Subject: [leadership] the new $100 bill


Hi all,



There have been a couple of posts here and some calls in the office about 
the new $100 bill being unveiled by Treasury this week.  The question asked 
is what about accessibility features.  Here's what I know.  First, the court 
order requiring accessibility features applies to the designs that are 
undertaken after the date of the court decision.  The design of this new 
$100 bill was already well under way when the court ruled in our case, and 
is therefore not covered by the court's order.  However, it does have some 
interesting features.  The numerals are rather large and may be easier for 
folks with low vision to see.  In addition, there are two new 
anticounterfeiting features that have been incorporated into this bill that 
people might be able to feel.  There is a strip on the bills, which is 
referred to as a security ribbon, created by incorporating ground up glass 
into part of the paper.  This is a technology that is in use on Swedish 
currency.  Also, on Ben Franklin's shoulder, they have added some enhanced 
entaglio printing.  Depending on how "enhanced" it is, that might change the 
texture of the paper where it is located.  Neither of these things were done 
with accessibility in mind, but they could be sufficiently tactile to make 
the bills identifiable, at least while they're new.  We won't actually know 
this until we can see one.  Our attorney, Jeff Lovitky, told me this morning 
that the actual bills won't be available until February, so we may have to 
wait until then to find out more about these features.  In the meantime, I 
thought you might be interested in a bit more info.



Melanie Brunson





Melanie Brunson, Executive Director

American Council of the Blind

2200 Wilson Blvd. Suite 650

Arlington, VA 22201

(202) 467-5081

1-800-424-8666

Fax: (703) 465-5085

Mbrunson at acb.org





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