This Louis Braille Bicentennial Silver Dollar was minted in 2009 to commemorate the 200th birthday, life and legacy of Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille system of reading and writing used today.

The silver dollar contained the first readable Braille characters to appear on a legal tender United States coin. 

The obverse of the coin features a portrait of Louis Braille designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. The inscriptions read “Liberty”, “In God We Trust”, “Louis Braille”, and the bicentennial dates “1809” and “2009”.

The reverse features an image of a child reading a Braille book with a bookcase in the background bearing the word “Independence”. Inscriptions read “United States of America”, “E Pluribus Unum”, and “One Dollar”. The field above the image includes the word “Braille” (abbreviated “BRL”) in Braille characters. Although Braille characters had appeared on previous US coins, this was the first time the characters appear large enough to be readable by touch. The reverse was designed by Susan Gamble and sculpted by Joseph Menna.