Earlier in another post I alluded to loving coin magic. It's a guilty pleasure of mine.

That being said I'm opening this thread as a forum to ask any question you might have about the topic.

I'll start things off by discussing why I prefer to use real morgan silver dollars in my work.

1) comes complete with a storyline...coins that old have a history
2) the larger size makes them more visible and also more impressive when manipulating, concealing...
3) they sound like heaven when they ring against each other as compared to the clad coins
4) they catch more of the available light in the room and flashes off the coins are little things that make the coins appear to dance in someones hands..It brings them to life.
5) Most coin work involves placing the coins in a spectators hands at some point. I want to put my props in the audiences hand. Many times I'll actually hand them the gaff as they are made so well today.

Which leads me to the next question....IYO, who makes the best coin gaffs? That's right, I'm calling you out....give us your opinion we all want to know!

I've had coins made from pretty much everyone you've heard of and then some...but maybe there is someone I'm not familar with their work... Love to find out

Off the top of my head.....Schoolcraft, Lassen, Wong, Kueppers, Van Dokkum, Precision, Johnsons, Sterling, Mason/Swadling...Throwing out some ideas.. How many more can you list and what's your opinion of their work??

I bought my first shell from Kueppers, great work. I dinged mine dropping it practicing Paul Gertner's Familiar Ring. RK has great customer service, I'm going to mail it back and he is going to fix it/or replace it. Great looking shell.

Michael I picked up your book Next Victim Please back when it was first released. If I remember correctly. You had a lot of coin material in there. Routines with purse frame,coins across, coins through table, a version of Williamson's Money Talks, coins and silks, version of Kurtz's Flurious.

My question/s is, Do you still perform these routines ? what is your favorite coin plot ? Has the way you present them changed over the years ? Do you write out scripts for your routines or do you just "jazz" it ?

Thanks,
Joe

Yes, RK does great work..in fact, it is getting to the point that most everyone I named makes a quality product. I have so many sets, and while they all perform and handle a little differently, I am fond of the deep dish ones made by Schoolcraft and Lassen because I can do coin rolls, and actually flip the coin in the air without fear of them seperating.

Yes, you are correct in that I have several coin items in NVP.
I honestly still perform all of them with the exception of the money talks variation. I've found this routine to be much more effective using gaffed coins to produce and vanish them so I have gone to the dark side on this one and given in...lol...

I still like to keep my coin plots direct and simple but I have a few that are longer "show pieces" like the cylinder and coins.
Recently I have been doing a lot more coin work. So be on the lookout for some of my new works to be released soon.