Explanation

We have coins and piles, but this question is more about piles. The answer choices look friendly, so let's work with those. Say we take (B). If the smaller pile is $12, then the larger pile is but that would yield a total of $36, not $60. That smaller pile is too small. Looking at (D), $36 doesn't make sense as a smaller pile, because it's already more than half of $60. Therefore, the correct answer for the smaller pile must be the one between these possibilities, $24. We can check: .

The correct answer is (C).