# SOLUTION: If Jessie has 8 coins that equal 68 cents, what are the coins?

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 Question 611362: If Jessie has 8 coins that equal 68 cents, what are the coins?Found 2 solutions by solver91311, Edwin McCravy:Answer by solver91311(16877)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website! Two quarters, three nickels, and three pennies. John My calculator said it, I believe it, that settles it Answer by Edwin McCravy(8908)   (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website! It's no fun when you don't explain the reasoning. Here's the reasoning: Since the amount is 68 cents you must have exactly 3 or 8 pennies, but you can't have 8 pennies, so you must have 3 pennies. So the problem simplifies to making 65 cents with 4 coins. So you'd have to have a half dollar or 1 or 2 quarters because 4 dimes isn't but 40 cents. If you used a half dollar, then you'd have to make 15 cents with only 4 coins with only dimes and nickels. You could do that with 3 nickels, but that wouldn't be but 7 coins, one short of 8. HEY!!! A light just dawned. If we swap the half dollar for two quarters, that'll still be 65 cents, and 1 more coin, or 8 coins! By golly that's it! That's the answer! 2 quarters, 3 nickels and 3 pennies. Just to complete the problem, we must rule out all other possible answers. Any other possibility would be to use only one quarter. If we had only one quarter, we'd have to make 40 cents with 5 coins with nickels and dimes. And there is no way to do that since the closest we could come is 4 dimes and 2 nickels. But that would be 6 coins not 5. So there's just one answer: 2 quarters 3 nickels and 3 pennies. Edwin