Mental Nuts-- Can You Crack 'em?

[BigV]

The conductor has only three-cent pieces, but he has lots of them. 165 three-cent pieces make change from a $5 bill for a $0.05 fare. This hoard of coins can't make the right change for a $1 bill though.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by BigV

The conductor has only three-cent pieces,
but he has lots of them. 165 three-cent pieces make change from a $5 bill for a $0.05 fare.
This hoard of coins can't make the right change for a $1 bill though.

V, that's a fascinating link. I didn't know trimes existed... but I have heard of tribles.

Did you notice that back then postage rates were going down, not up ?
Maybe it was before businesses got the $ reduced junk mail rates.

[footfootfoot]

In circulation in 1921 US currency.

[BigV]

??

In the 40 years up to 1921, over a million of them were minted. Surely the conductor could have accumulated 165 of them.

I will recalculate with whatever was available starting in 1921, if that is what you're getting at.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by BigV

??

In the 40 years up to 1921, over a million of them were minted. Surely the conductor could have accumulated 165 of them.

I will recalculate with whatever was available starting in 1921, if that is what you're getting at.

In circulation, not, in the conductor's pocket

[BigV]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

In circulation, not, in the conductor's pocket

coins minted thirty years earlier were almost certainly "in circulation". then you say "in 1921 currency". Are you saying the change was rendered in currency minted in 1921? We've strayed a bit from the paragraph in your book. I reckon there are multiple answers to the puzzle, I think I've offered one valid one, though perhaps not the one in your book. I'll hang on until I have an epiphany or you offer the / a different solution.

[infinite monkey]

Was any currency in postage stamp form?

[BigV]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

Was any currency in postage stamp form?

there was, but I can't "show my work" for the same kind of problem describe in footfootfoot's post for making change.

[infinite monkey]

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford proposed some kind of 'electric currency' in 1921. Supposedly.

Don't ask me, I don't understand the article:

http://eddiesblogonenergyandphysics....ty-backed.html

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by your article

The silver three cent piece (along with the silver dollar, the half dime, and the two cent piece) was discontinued by the Coinage Act of 1873.

However, production of the coin continued until 1889, 16 years after the three cent silver was discontinued. One reason often given for the discontinuation of the three cent nickel piece in 1889

...

The solution is a practical one, not relying on conductors carrying vast numbers of discontinued coinage.

[infinite monkey]

Does it have something to do with the value of silver?

[Sundae]

Just an aside (I am completely stumped by this) I remember using shilling and two shilling pieces as a child. They were accepted in lieu of 5p and 10p coins. But the country decimalised before I was born.

So I understand that the question has a more elegant answer than V suggested, but the words "in circulation" still include discontinued coinage in my head.

[footfootfoot]

I know what you mean and what V means, and I have mosquitoes in my basement still but that doesn't make it summer.

Big V was very close with his wikipedia search, and apart from the coins being discontinued and British, Sundae is also close.

[infinite monkey]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

I know what you mean and what V means, and I have mosquitoes in my basement still but that doesn't make it summer.

Big V was very close with his wikipedia search, and apart from the coins being discontinued and British, Sundae is also close.

So it has nothing to do with the value of silver.

OK, thanks.

[Gravdigr]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

...I have mosquitoes in my basement still but that doesn't make it summer.

Yeah. Dammit.

You can put a cat in the oven, but, that don't make it a biscuit.

I don't know what that means, I just wanted to toss out another clever phrase.