One amount, different coins

This lesson asks you to find different ways to show the same amount of money with Canadian coins up to 200 cents and with coins and bills up to 200 dollars. The museum offers one old record from the Islamic world, a saying of Malik that names a sum in dinars and in dirhams; it is not about Canadian money. The Canadian coins and bills, and all the counting, your class brings. ¹

Use play coins to make 50 cents in as many ways as you can, and record each way in a table.

Take two of your ways and check that they are worth the same. Say how you know, without counting everything again.

Malik ibn Anas compiled a book in the city of Medina. It is the Muwatta ². In one passage Malik says: I do not think anyone should swear on the pulpit over less than a quarter of a dinar, which is three dirhams ³. Look at how he names the money. He says the amount in two ways: a quarter of a dinar, and three dirhams ³.

In your class you make one amount with different sets of coins. Why is it useful to know that two different sets of coins can be worth the same amount?

• Muwatta 2131: the sentence of Malik about a quarter of a dinar and three dirhams.
• The Muwatta: the book Malik compiled in Medina.
• Malik ibn Anas: the man who wrote the book.

Read the record on Muwatta 2131. Write an amount you like in cents, and find two different sets of coins that make it.