Coin Contest
How much money is in it? If you guess an amount nearest to
the actual amount, I'll give you $10. In pennies.
Just kidding. If you guess closest, I will give you a $10 bill, or I will send you $10 via PayPal.
Guesses
There were 44 legitimate entries; I've removed the statistical outliers such as the wildly-optimistic $1,000,000.00 guess and the two "eleventy billion" guesses.
| 119.37 | 342.67 | 543.21 | 900.25 |
| 123.46 | 369.57 | 550.00 | 981.38 |
| 141.57 | 423.63 | 562.21 | 988.21 |
| 179.99 | 431.19 | 583.48 | 1,157.00 |
| 222.22 | 450.26 | 587.63 | 1,242.42 |
| 254.00 | 485.24 | 612.00 | 1,325.00 |
| 267.37 | 500.00 | 804.31 | 1,396.22 |
| 272.47 | 512.37 | 812.73 | 1,760.00 |
| 276.73 | 515.47 | 832.66 | 1,783.56 |
| 277.01 | 535.00 | 842.16 | 2,500.00 |
| 327.76 | 538.21 | 889.00 | 2,503.74 |
Analysis
Because I'm a big nerd, I have of course performed some basic analyses of the guesses for your amusement.
| Mean | $720.97 |
|---|---|
| Standard Deviation | $565.52 |
As expected, the guesses fit a normal distribution, but the left side of the plot should technically start at $119.37, the smallest guess:
The shaded region is approximately 50% of all guesses; I didn't bother to set up nice colored sections for each standard deviation from the center.
Results
I realize that you really only want to know how much money was in the barrel and if you guessed closest. That is why I'm going to drag this out even more by making you scroll down for a while.
Have fun!
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
$1,406.21
That is not a small number! My personal guess was $1,500, which was close, but not even I could win my own contest. Let's look at the entries again, this time with the winning guess highlighted:
| 119.37 | 342.67 | 543.21 | 900.25 | |
| 123.46 | 369.57 | 550.00 | 981.38 | |
| 141.57 | 423.63 | 562.21 | 988.21 | |
| 179.99 | 431.19 | 583.48 | 1,157.00 | |
| 222.22 | 450.26 | 587.63 | 1,242.42 | |
| 254.00 | 485.24 | 612.00 | 1,325.00 | |
| 267.37 | 500.00 | 804.31 | 1,396.22 | ← Dan K. |
| 272.47 | 512.37 | 812.73 | 1,760.00 | |
| 276.73 | 515.47 | 832.66 | 1,783.56 | |
| 277.01 | 535.00 | 842.16 | 2,500.00 | |
| 327.76 | 538.21 | 889.00 | 2,503.74 |
The winning guess was short by $9.99. I think that's rather interesting, since the prize is $10.00.
The Counting Process
A large machine at my bank counted the coins for me, and it helpfully printed a breakdown of the denominations when it was finished.
| Coin | Quantity | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 0.01 Penny | 5541 | 55.41 |
| 0.05 Nickel | 1298 | 64.90 |
| 0.10 Dime | 2489 | 248.90 |
| 0.25 Quarter | 4148 | 1,037.00 |
| 0.50 Half Dollar | 0 | 0.00 |
| 1.00 Dollar | 0 | 0.00 |
| Total | $1,406.21 | |
View my photos of the counting process
Thank You
Thanks for entering my contest! If I haven't contacted you by now, then you didn't win. Sorry. You can, however, go look at the photos of the counting process — they're worth your time.
