Amos, Bert, Clem and Dirk had just finished lunch in a restaurant and were paying their checks. The 4 men each had the correct number of dollar bills, each had coins that totaled 1 dollar and the same number of silver coins. Amos had 3 quarters, Bert had 2, Clem had 1 and Dirk had 0. The four men had to pay the same amount, 3 paid the exact amount, but the fourth required change. Determine the number of coins held by each man, and who required change.

I'm sorry, but what is the value of a silver? I'm not American, and by knowing that, I might be able to help you solve this problem.

Silver dollars are the norm. There is no denomination in the US called a 'silver'. There are pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, 50 cents pieces, and what they call silver dollars. Though, they are no longer silver.

50 cents pieces and silver dollars are not minted anymore.

I don't even know if there is a dollar coint minted in the US anymore. If there is, they are rarely used.

You mean that a 'silver' can be any coin, besides the quarter in that context?

Yes, I suppose so.

Hmm... the question is trickier than I thought. I'll get this later. I need to think about it more.

It's rather a weird question and I wonder who wrote it to call coins "silver." No one ever calls them that, except maybe someone who is say at least 60 years old and possibly grew up with them being called that, I don't know. (I've never heard it, except in old movies.)

They haven't made any coins with silver since 1964, with the exception of some half dollars & dollars having some silver until like the 70's. They've been mostly copper and nickel since then. On dimes and quarters you can look at the side and see the copper in the middle. Prior to that, some had some silver, and I'm sure at one time were all silver and were actually worth it. (I have a 1920 Liberty Head dime that would have been 90% silver.) And pennies are copper and were never made of silver that I'm aware.

If someone just said "coins" to me, I would assume that meant pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. As a general rule, people are not meaning half dollars and dollars by that. They actually are still minted but probably not in great numbers and people tend to hoard them. However... given that Dirk has no quarters... seems like he's got to have half dollar or dollar?

Of course, there's always the possibility this is from Canada. They have the same coinage we do (or at least did when I was there and stores here accept Canadian coins), but I don't have a clue what they're made of -- I'm sure not real silver. But maybe they call them "silver coins."

How can the coins all total a dollar, and they all had to pay the same amount, but one got change? Am I missing something?

OK, I guess I'm going to assume that I misinterpreted - that just cause they had the same amount of coins doesn't mean they had to pay them all. (i.e. they didn't have to pay $1)

In which case, I have it solved -- or at least a solution cause there might be more than one, and Unky this shouldn't be too hard for you.

I don't know if there's some formula that could be used... but start with Amos and figure out the least amount he could have. That's the easy part. Then go to Bert and that'll screw up what was done with Amos. You'll get a new minimum amount of coins but can easily adjust Amos. Clem I just started guessing at and found something using the same number of coins. And Dirk I made an assumption about but still kind of guessed, but got something to work out. The way I worked it out, it left only one person not having one specific increment of coin and therefore having to get change.