The coins currently in circulation in Britain are for 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, 100p and 200p. When I gave one of each of these coins to Tom and Harry to share between them, each took two or more coins, with each person's coins' total value equal to a prime number of pence. No coins were left over.

I asked Harry whether his share was a specific number of coins that I mentioned. He said "no".

I then asked Harry whether he had the coin of a denomination I specified. He said "yes".

His two answers allowed me to determine the total of the value that Harry had taken. What was that value?

(In reply to Errata: 1st solution by Sir Percivale)

Thanks for the correction, Percy.  I have fixed the typo in my solution.

Posted by Steve Herman on 2005-09-17 15:58:04