The colour of money

Currency has its own graphic language. Any new currency has to retain its authoritarian and credability whilst stil look contemporary. Money passes through many hands with great speed, and so it is essential that the design is as functional and accessable as possible "Fundamental to [a persons] independence is the ability to deal easily with money" (Currency Design for Visually Impaired People: European Blind union, 1995)

All Euro and UK banknotes are rectangular but ech denomination has a different colour and size, this seems an obvious neccessity when designing banknotes, however the USA have yet to adopt either!

THE EURO
Each euro note has the numeral over 2cm tall and intaglio printed so that they are descernible to the touch, at least when the banknotes are new. They are positioned at the top right of each note, with smaller numerals in the corners. The numerals in the bottom left corner are the boldest, set against a pale background to enhance contrast. they are followed by the word 'Euro' in capital letters and written in the latin alphabet, the word in the Greek alphabet is written below it fainter. All the notes have a tactile foil feature that differs in shape and position from the low-value to high-value notes.

The three dimensional nature of coins make them easier to differentiate than notes, the euro coins differentiate in terms of colour, size, weight, thickness and the edges are sometimes textured.

Euro notes and coins are inventive examples of inclusive design with non-invasive features that help visually impaired and sighted users alike. This idea needs to be translated more into US currency design where there is a greater use of notes than coins and less diferentiation between them, and also in some ways the British notes. Notes also get so worn that it is nearly impossible to know what you have in your hand.

A possible avenue that i could explore is that of redesigning the US dollar notes to make them more accessible to visually impaired people, however as i am not a US citizen this may prove a difficult task. I do not know enough about North American history or their patriotic values to create something both accessible and in keeping with USA thought.