The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 24, June 15, 2003, Article 15

18-CENT COIN?

  A tongue-in-cheek paper titled "What this country needs is an
  18-cent piece" was published in the April issue of "Mathematical
  Intelligencer" and picked up by Forbes  magazine.

  "Despite three attempts and millions of dollars in promotions, the
  U.S. mint can't get Americans to accept a dollar coin. Maybe it
  should try an 18-cent coin. So says Jeffrey Shallit, a University
  of Waterloo (Ont.) computer scientist with a bit of time on his
  hands.

  Counting all possible change amounts from 0 to 99 cents, Shallit
  found that the average transaction, if handled in optimal fashion
  by the 7-Eleven clerk, involves 4.7 coins. It just so happens that
  if the Mint ditched the dime and added an 18-cent coin, the
  average number of coins would fall to 3.9.

  ... for 41 cents the clerk hands back a quarter, a dime, a nickel
  and a penny. The Shallit system [selects]  two 18-cent coins and
  a nickel."

  To read the article and original paper, see:
  http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/0623/058.html
  http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~shallit/Papers/change2.pdf

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization 
promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org.

To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor 
at this address: whomren@coinlibrary.com

To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum