The function of the money brailler is to stamp a relief number in bills so that they can be read tactilely by those who cannot read them visually. I suppose this product is designed for the United States market, perhaps for other countries where bills of different value have the same size. In Europe, for example, the size of Euro bills varies according to their value, and this solves the problem of them being readable by the visually impaired. If dollar bills were designed for tactile recognition, this object would not have any reason to exist. But it exists and, after reading about it, I mail-ordered one for just about $12 (9 Euro). I soon realized that it is an inconsequential object, at least in terms of presence and integrity: two sheets of plastic riveted together, leaving a gap where the bill is introduced for stamping (it reminded me those ready-to-assemble toys kids get with junk food meals). But it is also rather empowering: I quickly started stamping all the bills in my wallet, thinking that I was adding a second, tact-based language to them. Suddenly, the object started making sense. I asked my friends if they would let me stamp their bills, and they did. After a while, I was proficient at brailling dollar bills and thought the pocket money brailler was a pretty inexpensive way to add (non monetary) value to bills, and thus mitigate their significant design shortcomings.
