Privacy and counterfeit coins (Q517889)

This short article presents an extension to the well-known puzzle of detecting counterfeit coins using a series of weightings on a scale. In particular, the challenge is to convince an observer on the exact number of lighter coins among a pile of coins using successive weightings, but in such a way so as not to reveal information about whether any particular coin is genuine or not. The authors present several cases and derive optimal algorithms for each case.