| Description : This coin is dedicated to Louis Braille (1809‐1852), the
inventor of the braille named after him. Blind after an accident at the age of five, he learned at the age of eleven about
the "night writing" developed by Charles Barbier (1767‐1841), which was intended to give written orders to soldiers at
the front who could read them without lighting a lantern, as they would otherwise have exposed themselves to enemy fire.
In 1824, at the age of fifteen, he developed a code for the French alphabet to improve night writing. After a second
revision, in 1837 he published the first binary braille developed in modern times. A hand is depicted scanning an open book.
Above the index finger pointing to the vertical inscription "LOUIS BRAILLE 1809 2009" are two stylised seagulls as a symbol
of freedom of knowledge. The name of the county as the ligature "RI" (Repubblica Italiana, Italian Republic) is at the top
right, the "R" the mint mark of the Italian mint Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato in Rome at the bottom
right. Braille's name is shown below the book in the Braille script he invented. At the bottom of the pill are the initials
"M.C.C." of the medallist Maria Carmela Colaneri. |
