Teaching Money Identification by Touch

It has been a few years since I have needed to teach money identification by touch to a student. This method of identifying bills and coins is usually taught to student who are blind or have low vision, but I have also successfully taught this method to learners with brain injury that affects visual and short term memory.

The method is like this:

Coins are identified by three characteristics:

• Size. The dime is the smallest coin, and the half-dollar is the largest.
  
  
• Edge. The penny and the nickel have a smooth edge. The dime, quarter, and half-dollar have a milled, ridged edge.
  
  
• Thickness. The nickel is thicker than the other coins.

Bills are identified by how they are folded:

• Leave $1 bills unfolded
• Fold $5 bills lengthwise ("the long way")
  
• Fold $10 bills by width ("the short way")
  
• Fold $20 bills lengthwise and then by width ("total fold")