Coin Specifications

Date: 09/24/2001 at 22:19:15
From: ann
Subject: Weighing coins to cash in

Approximately how many of each: nickels, dimes, and pennies, does it 
take to make a pound? Or do you have another suggestion? I want to get 
an idea of how much change I have around.

Thanks.

Date: 09/25/2001 at 11:55:56
From: Doctor Ian
Subject: Re: Weighing coins to cash in

Hi Ann,

You can find the official weights of coins here:

  U.S. Code: Title 31, Section 5112 (Money and Finance)
  Sec. 5112. Denominations, specifications, and design of coins 
  http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/31/5112.text.html   

Note that the weights are in grams. There are 454 grams in a pound, 
so if a coin weighs x grams, the number of coins in a pound would be 
454/x.

For example, a nickel weighs 5 grams. So there would be 454/5 = about 
91 nickels in a pound. 
  
Does this help? 

- Doctor Ian, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/