As far as I can find, Scotty York put out a triple spellbound (climax with a chinese coin) back in 1975. Al Schneider was the first to incorporate a double change in his Tri Change from 1980. Does anyone know of an earlier reference that predates the York routine?

Fred Kaps did a trick where he changed a coin from silver to copper and back a few times - then when he closed his hand there was a "clink"... and he dropped out two chinese coins.

Before that there was a trick in Bobo's where you stretch a chinese coin then turn it into a Man-money to finish. Silent Mora's item.

The Silent Mora trick is more of a shape changing routine rather than a spellbound routine. Actually, when I began my search, I was frankly surprised that Spellbound wasn't included in Bobo (unless it was called sometbing else and I missed it). The other routine sounds a lot like Harvey Rosenthal's from Close Up Sampler 2 (1976)

I agree. I was thinking that if you treat spellbound as a routine rather than a coin change - the Mora Chinese coin stretch trick would be played as an elastic coin you play with till you hand out the man-money at the end.

Maybe the Changing coin -> "Spellbound" is unusual as a routine. Are there other tricks where you change something back and forth a bunch of times as a basic effect rather than a running gag in context? Maybe "Presto Chango" the two coin change item using the Bobo switch. The repeat transposition is sometimes used a gag-setup for a finale examples:
glass and bottle changing places under tubes - setup for the large number of bottles produced
black and white hanks in the spotted tube where at the end the spots vanish from the tube appear on the the hanks,

What do you think?

There is "The Protean Coin" in Bobos. It uses the "fingers pointing up" grip discussed earlier for the most part.


Jim

Just checked, The Protean Coin by Milton Kort IS a spellbound, the coin not being in spellbound position but instead held against the tips of the outstretched fingers with the thumb.
There IS a TRIPLE spellbound in the revised edition (1966) called Al Leech's Coin Trick, where as a climax the change is from a coin, into a button (Making it the first Triple Change spellbound, and giving a proper ending to a spellbound effect!)
Jon, I stand corrected on the Rosenthal routine. It is a sucker spellbound, with a chinese coin as a climax, but not as you have described.

Agreed. The Milt Kort routine also has the finger/thumb handling you asked about crediting "...where it is held good side against the fingers. Pass your right hand in
front of the coin in the left hand as before, but this time..." That reads as the hand comes in from the side rather than from over the top with "fingers pointing down" as was in the Victor routine. At the end of the description is a nice secret turnover of a coin in your hand that's useful. Three for Kort.

The Kaps routine is a copper and silver coin transposition done a few times (three on the video that's online) with sucker climax. But in mechanics it pretty much sets the stage for other items which hit print after the Classic Palm change secret was out.

Unless I'm missing something Jon, the Kort routine doesn't have the coin pressed against the fingers with the thumb for the change (which is the bit Michael was looking to credit).
I have the Dover reprint of the 1952 edition, perhaps the description is different in the revised edition ?

I wonder if there are any earlier references to using a sh**l instead of an extra coin, or if this was original with Kort.


Jim

Whoops, Michael and Jim are correct - the description of the Milt Kort item has fingerpalm rather than a thumb hold on the coin.

Yea A 3 way spellbound is Ok!!! But if you want a FIVE WAY Spellbound Look in my 1 St. Hardbound Book!!!