Here's a question from my probability textbook:
A bag contains $m$ dollar coins and $n$ nickels. A man is allowed to draw coins one by one until he has drawn at least $p$ dollars. Show that the value of his expectation is ${{np}\over{20(m+1)}} + p$ dollars.
Here's what I did. We space our $m$ dollar coins equally so that they partition our $n$ nickels into $m+1$ parts of ${n\over{m+1}}$ nickels each. And each of those parts will have value of ${n\over{20(m+1)}}$ dollars. So then our desired expectation ${{np}\over{20(m+1)}} + p$ dollars is equal to drawing coins up until the $p$th (evenly spaced) dollar coin.
But these are just my observations, I'm not sure if I have even showed what we wanted to show. Have I just merely asserted what we want to show without explanation? How can I conclude the result? What am I missing? Is the problem statement even correct?
Update: To clarify, I realize the problem statement means at least $p$ dollar coins, hence the solution method I gave and also Yuri Negometyanov's solution below. But I am more interested in the answer when it's at least $p$ dollars in money (and not at least $p$ dollar coins).