Sternberg's puzzle

I've been reading through the Mercury/SLQ/WLH Redbook (volume 18) and on page 31, it mentions a coin puzzle that was proposed by H.A. Sternberg during the 1926 ANA convention.

He challenged: "Take seven coins: a half dollar, quarter, nickel, and four pennies totaling 84 cents -- and arrange them in two rows of five coins each that only total 82 cents." (I'm paraphrasing). The story continues "it can be done."

After two days, I've only come up with the following solution: stack two of the cents on top of each other so that the two "rows" are stacked vertically and parallel to each other. But that seems to me to be ignoring the spirit of the puzzle. Am I on the correct path or am I overlooking the obvious?

 

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I'm guessing you're almost there. I'll send a PM to avoid spoiling others' fun.

 

Hmm, I may have to give this one a try

 

How can you take 7 coins and arrange them into two rows of 5 coins each? That would be a total of 10 coins.

 

That's a clue -- some coins have to be in more than one row.

 

Whatchu talkin bout Willis? Is this magic, interdimensional shenanigans, science fiction?

Never mind . . . I get it now. I won't spoil it for anyone else.

 

JeffB's solution to me was brilliant but I won't spoil it for anyone.

 

I think my solution and OP's are on equal footing, but I won't spoil, either.

I suspect mine might be the one Sternberg had in mind, which makes it less interesting to me than @midtncoin's...