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Dealing with US Dollars...

Assuming we know the weights of half-dollars, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.

Also assuming the weights remain constant (don't change from one quarter to another quarter).

If we have a bag of these coins (could include any coin), and we weigh them to get a total weight, can we know how much money we have in the bag?

If we cannot know exactly, how close of an estimate can we get?

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    Makes sense...thanks!2011-01-03

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According to the U.S. Mint, nickels weigh 5.000 grams and pennies 2.500 grams. So you generally cannot know exactly how much money is in the bag: for example, 10 grams of coins could be two nickels (10 cents) or four pennies (4 cents).

http://www.usmint.gov/about_the_mint/?action=coin_specifications

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    On the other hand, if you restrict to dimes, quarters and half-dollars, you can determine the worth from the total weight since those coins all have the same value to weight ratio: 4.40917 cents per gram.2011-01-03