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"This country"? The author is at the University of Waterloo, but the Abstract talks about the USA.

It should be called "What THAT country needs is an 18c piece"!

Canada has the same coin denominations as the US, except that it has now eliminated the penny.

The article already accounts for a difference between Canadian and US currency -- the US has no $2 coins and nearly nonexistent $1 coins, and the smallest bill in Canadian currency is $5.

They suggest "optimizing" Canadian change with an 83-cent piece... which of course makes no sense once the penny is eliminated, so now there must be a different optimal coin.

The author could easily base calculations off of cost(100; 1, 2, 5, 20, 40) and multiply the result by 5 to find the new optimal coin. This avoids unduly weighting values which are impossible without a penny which is what cost(500; 5, 10, 25, 100, 200) would do.

*Also we have loonies and toonies

If you look at the bottom of the first page, you'll see it's a play on this: “What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar.” T. R. Marshall (US Vice-President), New York Tribune, January 4, 1920

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