While in Thailand I bought the old brass caps and ring trick that works with a stack of Thai coins. I guess I've risked embarrassing myself enough in this Cafe already to admit this and ask if anyone has advice or feelings about this trick. One issue might be the use of foreign or strange coins rather than common ones.

--alan

This effect of course, and the Tenyo versions etc. are a rip off of something put out in England many years ago by Fred Lowe.
I think it only dates back to the sixties.

It's a very clever effect, but now it has been pirated and mass marketed I doubt you'd get any pro. entertainers using it.

Are there none of your local coins the same size as the Thai coins? Could you not add those to the top of the stack gaff?

Or build your patter around how valuable the foreign coins are so you carry them around in a little safe. Someone finds the coins gone when they try to steal them, thats the security. Take duplicates out of your pocket.

Paul Hallas

Thanks for your graciousness, Paul. I had the feeling this effect had become an untouchable (in India's old sense of the word.)
The street vendor who sold it to me made the stack of coins go from my hand (under one cap) to the table (under the other cap). When I saw this effect back in the seventies, I only remember there being one stack and a disappearance to the effect.

I hope within the year to be able to do the same effect by more legitimate methods.

--alan