What's in \textit{YOUR} wallet? (Q297491)

This article considers the problem of determining how many coins and what mix of coins (among the various denominations) a person will have in their wallet, as a result of receiving coins as change from a transaction and spending coins during purchases. In order to determine this distribution of coins, it is necessary to determine what is the strategy used by the shop owner to provide change (e.g., if they use the strategy to return the minimum number of coin pieces) and what is the strategy of the person to use the coins that are already in their wallet (e.g., do they try to use all the 1-cent coins first or not). The authors consider several scenarios and using algebra and computer simulations are able to determine the average number of coins and the percentage mix of coin denominations in someone's wallet in the long term.