I am learning material from Jay Sankey's Revolutionary Coin Magic video (well trying, it's quite overwhelming) and his coin bend looks like a great routine to learn. I've wanted to add some effects to my repertoire beyond coins switching places and this looks perfect.

I'm going to get some matching dollar coins tomorrow and bend one of them. Should I just cover it with a cloth towel, put it in a vice grip, and use a pair of pliers until it's at a 90-degree angle?

Most of my coin magic uses half dollars; this will be my main routine using dollar coins. Should I also bend a half dollar while I am in the garage, and use something like the Bobo Switch to do a coin bend with it? Maybe I won't need a bent half dollar, if I can get the routine down well with dollar coins. Are there any other homemade coin modifications you guys use that I should look into?

I would like to do something with a borrowed coin but nobody carries around half-dollars or dollar coins anymore. Since they came out with the State Quarters now I can't really do borrowed coin effects with those either, since the odds of their coin matching mine are quite slim. Is there a way around this, or does it take a bending gimmick to work with borrowed coins?

Any suggestions on other mentalism-related coin effects? I don't want to end up with a performance that's all the same (transpositions, vanishes, etc.)

Thanks!
-Jonathan

'Yes' to covering it with a towel but I only bend mine around 45 degrees. This is because it's still definitely bent and it makes it easier to 'bend' it in your hands right in front of the specs.
I'm still waiting to hear about Quantum Bender 2.0 being able to bend UK coins, some say yes, some say no. This means if the spec doesn't have the same coin as I do, I'm still okay to go ahead with the trick (plus I like having different methods for the same effect).

Cheers, Mike

Well I managed to ruin a perfectly good silver dollar. I put it in the vice grip wrapped in a towel and used pliers, but they cut right through the towel, the coin wouldn't bend at all, and the edges got all scratched up.

I guess it's back to the drawing board.
-Jonathan

Spend the 45 dollars on the SL coin bender, It is a tool that will take care of all your bending needs. It is very hard to bend a half with it but it can be done.

Thanks for the advice!

I want to learn a routine from Jay Sankey's "Revolutionary Coin Magic" that uses a silver dollar, bent to a "L" shape. The handling is designed for this kind of bend, so I'm going to start with that and then experiment with other methods.

Maybe I will go down to the local Home Depot and see if they have any heavy-duty equipment there. Hopefully I can convince some helpful salesman to "demo" the tools and bend a coin for me.

-Jonathan