2009 - Louis Braille 200th Birth Anniversary | Commemorative Coin
The first commemorative coin for the year 2009 was released on occasion of 200th Birth Anniversary of Louis Braille, and all over world there were various events to mark the occasion.
Louis Braille (January 4, 1809 – January 6, 1852) stands as the ingenious inventor of braille, a groundbreaking system of reading and writing designed for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. This tactile system involves characters formed by one to six embossed points, allowing users to read by running their fingers over the raised dots. Braille's creation has been adapted for various languages worldwide.
At the tender age of three, tragedy struck when Louis Braille accidentally injured his right eye while using a pruning knife that was too heavy for him. Despite efforts to treat the wound, it became severely infected, spreading to his left eye and resulting in his eventual blindness. Undeterred by this adversity, Braille attended a Blind School where he learned basic craftsman skills and trades. The prevailing method for reading at the time involved feeling raised letters, but the system had its shortcomings, including the impractical weight of the resulting books.
In 1821, Charles Barbier introduced Braille to "night writing," a code with 12 raised dots and dashes designed for secret communication among soldiers. Inspired by this concept, Braille embarked on inventing his system at the age of 15, utilizing his father's stitching awl. Departing from Barbier's 12 dots, Braille streamlined his system to use only six dots, influenced, perhaps, by wooden dice given to him by his father.
Braille's system offered several advantages, including single-fingertip recognition of letters, facilitating immediate comprehension without finger repositioning. The organized dot patterns made the system easy to learn. Crucially, Braille's system allowed both reading and writing, a significant improvement over the previous method. Additionally, the slightly raised dots made texts smaller, lighter, and more accessible.
Expanding his system, Braille incorporated notation for mathematics and music. In 1829, he published the first book about his system, demonstrating its utility for words, music, and plain songs. Further innovations followed, such as a Braille typewriter developed with his friend Pierre Foucault.
Louis Braille succumbed to tuberculosis in Paris in 1852 at the age of 43. In 1952, on the centenary of his death, his body was re-interred with honors in the Panthéon in Paris. Two years after his passing, Braille's system received official recognition in France in 1854. His 200th birth anniversary in 2009 was commemorated across Europe, with countries like Belgium, Italy, India, and the USA issuing special coins to mark the occasion, recognizing the enduring impact of Braille's revolutionary contribution to accessibility and communication.
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