SOLUTION: A jar contains nickles and pennies. If there are 56 coins in all and the total value is $1.52, How many nickles are in the jar?

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Question 1006333: A jar contains nickles and pennies. If there are 56 coins in all and the total value is $1.52, How many nickles are in the jar?
Answer by ikleyn(52776) (Show Source):
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A jar contains nickles and pennies. If there are 56 coins in all and the total value is $1.52, How many nickles are in the jar?
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Let me solve the problem by an unusual way, without using equations.

Let us suppose for a moment that all 56 coins are pennies.
Then their value would be 56 cents. It is less than $1.52 in 96 cents.
It is clear that the difference is due to presence of 5-cent coins that we intently counted as 1-cent coins.
It is also clear that the number of these 5-cent coins is = = 24 to compensate the difference.
So, the answer is: there are 24 nickels and 56-24 = 32 of pennies in the jar.

The solution is completed.

Surely, the problem can be solved by reduction to a linear equation, or to a system of linear equations,
as it was demonstrated in my lessons on coins in this site
Coin problems and More Coin problems.

But it also can be solved without using equations, with the use of mental Math only.