Totally greedy coin sets and greedy obstructions (Q1010817)

Summary: A coin set is a strictly increasing list of positive integers that always begins with 1. A coin set is called greedy when the simple greedy change-making algorithm always produces the fewest number of coins in change. Here, the greedy change-making algorithm repeatedly selects the largest denomination coin less than the remaining amount until it has assembled the correct change. Pearson has provided an efficient algorithm for determining whether a coin set is greedy. We study a stricter property on coin sets, called total greediness, which requires that all initial subsequences of the coin set also be greedy, and a simple property makes it easy to test if a coin set is totally greedy. We begin to explore the theory of greedy obstructions --- those coin sets that cannot be extended to greedy coin sets by the addition of coins in larger denominations.