When the big flaming placards were exhibited at the little provincial
railway station, announcing that the Great ---- Company would run cheap
excursion trains to London for the Christmas holidays, the inhabitants
of Mudley-cum-Turmits were in quite a flutter of excitement. Half an
hour before the train came in the little booking office was crowded with
country passengers, all bent on visiting their friends in the great
Metropolis. The booking clerk was unaccustomed to dealing with crowds of
such a dimension, and he told me afterwards, while wiping his manly
brow, that what caused him so much trouble was the fact that these
rustics paid their fares in such a lot of small money.
He said that he had enough farthings to supply a West End draper with
change for a week, and a sufficient number of threepenny pieces for the
congregations of three parish churches. "That excursion fare," said he,
"is nineteen shillings and ninepence, and I should like to know in just
how many different ways it is possible for such an amount to be paid in
the current coin of this realm."
Here, then, is a puzzle: In how many different ways may nineteen
shillings and ninepence be paid in our current coin? Remember that the
fourpenny-piece is not now current.