Just curious - they can't be made from the real thing......

Yes they are made from the real thing. You need the proper skill and machinery to expand it, and then machine out one side with a lathe.

Yes it's interesting to wonder how they do it. I don't know if Todd, Jamie, Roy, Thomas etc have differnt ways of doing the expansion proceedure, but I remember reading how around 50 years ago in France they were made by having a hundread weight dropped precisely on the coin from a certain height. This would cause the coin to expand and I assume allow the non compressed side of the coin to fall out.
Get's even more intriguing when you think about how Hofinzer would have got one made.

Adam

I believe Todd Lassen came up with a different (new?) way of expanding ]’s within the past year or so which doesn't leave any distortion whatsoever on them... they are almost “TOO perfect” looking. His dollar sized e]’s are things of beauty… I have seen one on his new Triple Threat gaff which my friend just bought. And it seems Todd finally added this gaff set to his site http://www.toddlassen.com ! Exciting stuff indeed!

This is going a little off topic, But are all coin gaffs made from real coins?

I don't think that a bending coin is made out of a real coin

Well ofcourse they are. It would be harder to duplicate a coin then gimmick it, as apose to using real money and then gaff it up.

Wow...

yes all bending coins, flippers, ect are made from real coins(silvershifter obviously isn't).

Also, a coin is a solid piece of metal, you couldn't compress one side and have something pop out...

You press or roll out a coin so its slightly thinner, then you put it on a lathe and drill all of it out cept for the face and sides...

Ah ha....

Thinner? Ouch

The old nickles to dimes, stack can't possibly be real!

Well, of course the "stack" isn't real... Think their talking about actual coins here that are modified. But I think the nickel in the "Fickle Nickle" trick is definitely not "possibly" real...