I'd like to take a look at some "workers" that use regular coins. I have no desire to buy shells, flippers or anything similar. Any recommendations for Books or DVDs?

Try Rune Klan's Three Pieces of Silver, or just go though Bobo's New Modern Coin Magic first review anything else 😉

Yes. I am considered a purist, and do very few tricks with gaffs. Check out my three hour Penguin Live lecture One in dvd or download, my four hour Penguin Live lecture Two in download, and my At the Table lecture dvd or download, all available at Penguin. In the NYCMS dvd series there are 225 tricks from a bunch of top coin magicians with and without gaffs, available at Vanishing Magic inc for a great price in dvd or downloads. Also check out Curtis Kams dvds.

There are lots of resources on gimmickless routines. And of the "learn sleight of hand"-type resources will have a plethora of gimmickless stuff.

The NYCMS set is great, as is Dr. Rubinstein's Knockout Coin Magic.
Eric Jones has a trilogy of DVDs (only the 3rd has gaffs) that I've heard good things about.
David Roth has a set of DVDs, again only some of which have gaffs.
Same thing for Sankey, David Stone, Curtis Kam, and numerous others.

There are a bunch of classic books - you should start with Bobo's, and then Kaufman's Coin Magic is a good follow-up. They have some gaff things, but definitely no exclusively.

Of course, that's by no means an exhaustive list, and I mean no slight (pun unintended) towards anyone I left out.

You could also go for the DVD set for Bobo: https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Magic-Make......00JQQKJA which is a fantastic price.

If you're looking for stuff by specific people, I find that there are some people who occasionally use a gaff, but also do a lot of work without. Jeff Copeland, Curtis Kam, and Marion Boykin all come to mind easily.

Bobo is the book most magician's suggest as a learning tool for coin hand magic, but, it is very poor as a teaching guide. It's illustrations on critical, important, basic sleights like Classic Palm are mis-drawn showing incorrect anatomy and coin placement which can screw you up for years.

The writing is often opaque and confusing on many classic moves. The Demanche Change is terribly described here. Bobo's description of Down's elegant and brilliant contribution to the art, The Eureka Vanish, is rotten- truncated and confusing and I think, pretty much impossible to learn from Bobo at all.

Even worse, Bobo lacks a teacher's insight-or empathy for the student of magic in this huge collection of coin tricks. It's just an attempt to cobble together a sketchy list of what was popular in the mid-20th century with coins at the time.

It is extensive, but much too vague. This makes it a must have, as far as lots of content, for people who are already well-schooled in fundamental principles, but an absolute disaster for new-comers wanting to learn to do things correctly.

Henry Hay's masterpiece, The Amateur Magician's Handbook, was published about the same time. While it's name often makes adult magician's turn up their noses in disdain at the idea of being an "amateur", the book is actually equally good for flat beginners and extremely advanced old times in the same way that Our Magic is.

It is a book of that caliber.

The author takes the time to really get into depth about the differences in magic with mechanical helpers, and then with pure hand magic. That is, you actually learn crucial material about sleight of hand as an art form or skill in itself.

In my opinion the general chapter on hand magic, and then the clear and concise chapter on coin magic are the best writing on coin manipulation ever written.

Hay/June Barrows Mussey was one of the very best writer/teachers in magic. He knew Downs personally and brings to the book an intimate style of writing that makes you feel like an insider being instructed in person. The book is full of distinct points, instead of vague, fuzzy generalizations. It possesses actual depth, a rare thing in manipulative magic books.

The illustrations in the early editions of the book are extremely clear and perfectly framed black and white photos.

I think it's telling that if you do a search of all time favorite books on magic on these boards, "The Amateur Magican's Handbook" has been the winner, or in the top ten books in all of magic in polls- not just coin magic, and that's really something for a book that 70 years old and out of print.

Also, while the book is a "general" book which covers all aspects of the art- it's real focus and true strength is definitely in coin hand magic, and then perhaps magic with cards.

No other book comes close, when it comes to coins and grasping what manipulating coins is REALLY about. No other book explains the fundamentals explicitly, and follows through with well explained and illustrated classic material.

The book's weakness is in it's scope- it does not try to include every coin trick of it's day. It has the opposite problem of Bobo. It concentrates of basic, foundation material and then goes into the most popular routines of the day which use the foundation material previously taught.

So, if you want to LEARN to perform sleight of hand with coins well, and UNDERSTAND what you are doing- The Amateur Magician's Handbook has no peer. If you prefer sheer quantity and a larger page count over quality, depth and clarity, Bobo might be your huckleberry.

There is a fundamental difference in wanting a book to LEARN how to manipulate coins, and wanting a book of many sketched out routines.

In my opinion, TAMH ought to be one of the books professional magicians work hard to keep in print for future young magicians. I've heard many magicians mention that they can tell a performer who learned from Hay's tome by their attitudes towards magic in general. Like all the arts, how well the basic foundation building blocks of the art form are learned is what leads to a musician being able to play Mozart beautifully, or a painter to express themselves uniquely in what seems to be a complex way.

Magic is no different than any other art, and the best author/teachers are the ones that convey the important principles- the foundations to the art form in the clearest and positive way.

Yes, the NYCMS set is a must have.

Also check out Dary's 'Cross Of India' routine (Michael Ammar does a version on some DVD set (forget which at the moment). No gimmicks, fairly easy to do and effective.

I've never had any trouble understanding the Bobo book. It's not a big, splashy publication, but there's lots of good magic in there. David Roth, Gary Kurtz, lots of others base a lot of their coin work on stuff in Bobo's book.

It looks old and outdated, but that's no big deal to me.

Where do you plan on working? If you're a working card guy you already know how counts and displays need to change depending on audience angles, whether you're sitting etc.

As soon as I read the first post I was going to suggest Three Pieces of Silver as well.

David Stone has some fantastic routines as well, as does Al Schneider and of course David Roth.

Could not agree more Fonda57, Bobo is, imho, THE go-to source for both beginners and grizzled old coin-droppers like me