FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Wednesday, April 20, 2007
CONTACT: Yoni Cohen, (202) 225-3202

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Pete Stark (D-CA) today introduced the Catherine Skivers Currency for All Act. This legislation would make U.S. currency accessible to all blind and visually impaired Americans.

“All Americans should be able to recognize the denominations of paper currency,” said Stark. “But current bills are identical in size, which prevents millions of blind and visually impaired people from fully participating in our economy. The Catherine Skivers Currency Act would allow the United States to join the rest of the world in making its currency available to all.”

Of the more than 180 countries that issue their own banknotes, only the United States prints identical bills for every denomination. In November of 2006, a U.S. District Court found that the Treasury Department had violated the Rehabilitation Act by issuing paper currency that visually impaired individuals could not readily distinguish. The court ordered the government to make paper currency recognizable to the blind through the use of distinguishing tactile marks, a decision the Treasury Department is appealing.

Rep. Stark’s legislation is named after Catherine Skivers, a constituent of his who is the immediate past president of the California Council of the Blind. It requires the U.S. Treasury to trim the corners of all bills in a manner that prevents fraud, with lower value bills having more corners trimmed as detailed below.

The bill calls for the trimming of four corners on the one dollar bill, three corners on the two dollar bill, two diagonal corners on the five dollar bill, two corners on a long side of the ten dollar bill, two corners on a short side of the 20 dollar bill, one corner on the 50 dollar bill, and no corners on the 100 dollar bill.