He spent a total of 361d. So he must have given 19 people 19d each. The only way to make that work is to assume that the 4d coin was current "some years ago". We have 19d = 3d + 4d + 4d + 4d + 4d (5 coins) or 3d + 3d + 3d + 3d + 3d + 4d (6 coins) or we can get less coins using 1s or 6d. We want a total of 100 coins. 5.19 = 95, so he could give 5 people 6 coins each and 14 people 5 coins each. Dudeney 1-25 (C) John Scholes jscholes@kalva.demon.co.uk 25 Oct 2002
Dudeney, Amusements in Mathematics Problem 23 Some years ago a man told me he had spent one hundred English silver coins in Christmas-boxes, giving every person the same amount, and it cost him exactly Â£1, 10s 1d. Can you tell just how many persons received the present, and how he could have managed the distribution? That odd penny looks queer, but it is all right.