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Comment by terminalshort | Hacker News Reader

It's a completely different color than a quarter.

That doesn't help if you're in dim lighting or have vision problems.

If you have vision problems, US currency is totally unfriendly to you. Unlike other countries, which have bills of different sizes, all the US currency bills are the same size, so getting change as a blind person is basically relying on the honesty of whoever is behind the counter.

Absolutely true. It's one of the several crazy design problems with US paper currency.

That would explain why 1% of people don't use the $1 coin. It doesn't explain the other 99%.

99% of people have Darkvision? What is this, a D&D party?

Yeah, since I often buy things with cash in places that are so dark I can't see the coins that's a major consideration for me. JFC what planet do you live on?

That's why the dollar coin was redesigned in 2000. The old dollar coin had a reeded edge that was too similar to a quarter, so it was sometimes hard to distinguish if you had vision issues (or if you didn't have vision issues because they were about the same size as a quarter). The new ones have a smooth edge so you can tell them apart from quarters without having to look at them

True, and the new design is better than the old because of it. But it hasn't resolved the issue enough to really matter. Some less subtle physical difference is required -- put a hole in it, make it an obviously unique size, whatever.

At least that's how it seems to me. It's an interesting design issue. I don't personally care too much -- I'm fine with the paper bill -- but I do have curiosity about why the coin designers have made the decisions they did about the $1 coin.

If your fingertips can sense the color of things in your pocket, I'd love to learn more.

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