Okay... a really basic question. Has anyone come up with a good way to replace the insert in a Chinatown Half. I've tried to cut out 3 dozen and can't get the size right. Hole puncher too small. UGH! Any suggestions???

To make a hole try a peice of thin ply wood omn top and one on the bottom, the use a drill instead of a punch, do the hole first then cut out the rest, good luck and I hope we are talking about the same thing

I went to one of those craft stores and purchased the right size hole puncher, it was really cheap too. Took the coin with me to be sure. It wasn't that big a deal to be honest. Then I just went to a magazine and found my appropriate flesh color, popped out a few hole inserts and stuck one in. Done!

You can also go and get denisen (SP) stickers in a variety of colors.

Mike

Good shoot Mike, that'll work too.

Oh and Happy 4th and God Bless America... -Mb

Buy one of Lassens: http://toddlassen.com/china.htm

Resurrecting this thread, because I'm currently struggling with this exact same issue myself. My Johnson Chinatown Half's insert finally became wrinkled and soggy after a coin cleaning/polishing session, so I removed it and now need to replace it. (I'd also like the option of being able to use different colored inserts to match closeup pads and other backgrounds.) However, I'm having a heck of a time trying to find a way to fit a new insert in the hole that looks as good as the original.

Like the OP, I have spent hours with scissors and x-acto blades, attempting to cut out a perfect paper circle that it exactly the right size. I must be all thumbs when it comes to doing so, because mine are never quite right (too uneven, inadequate coverage of the underlying metal).

I also bought some of those little Avery/Dennison dot stickers that come in various colors, but they are too small in diameter (when you put one in, you still see a rim or ring of bare copper encircling the colored dot).

Same problem with using a three-ring-binder-configured hole puncher to punch out dots of white paper; they come out too small, too. There's always a visible ring of telltale bare metal encircling them when inserted into the hole.

And as I say, I've wasted hours trying to hand-cut small paper dots in perfect circles of the exact size, but without success.

Any other tips, tricks, or techniques for managing this surprisingly difficult task? (Do they actually make hole punchers of varying sizes?)

If you're using a smaller white insert maybe the old Whiteout liquid (do they still sell this?) would be suitable to fill-in the outer margin.

Plan "B" might be filling in the tiny rim around the edges of your insert using white shoe polish and a trimmed down Q-Tip.

In either case clean-up should be easy.

(For the record: The original Chinatown Quarter by Ken Allen used real Chinese coins with a square hole.)

Julie

You might try a 2 hole punch, the type you punch the top of documents to attach to a file folder. The holes they punch are just a tad larger than a regular 3 hole or single hole punch. Staples or any of the office stores should have them.

Reed McClintock has a great tip on his Coin Ovations DVD. He uses flesh-colored modelling clay:

https://www.schooloutfitters.com/catalog......PSPN=pla

By way of update, in case anybody else is interested in this topic: I have learned, to my admitted surprise, that not all hole-punchers are created equal. Most (including mine) punch a 1/4" hole, which results in a paper "dot" that is just a bit too small for a Johnson model Chinatown half. After a bit of research, however, I have discovered that 9/32" and 5/16" hole punchers also exist, though they're evidently not as common.

Since a 1/4" (= 4/16") is slightly too small, perhaps a 9/32" (= 4.5/16") or a 5/16" might be ideal.

Unfortunately, after visiting Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, and even Jo-Ann Fabrics, I could not find a 5/16" model. Theirs were all either 1/4", or simply unlabeled/unspecified.

Well, I did find one three-hole-punch that was 9/32" (4.5/16"), but I dunno if that is the perfect size, or if instead I really need a 5/16" (which I have not found locally, but which I can order online).

Anybody have really good eyes, and a really good set of measuring tools, who could perhaps determine the exact interior diameter of the Johnson Chinatown Half's center hole?

Out of curiosity I used a digital caliper to measure a Johnson CSB set Chinese coin and it came in at .299 which when converted to a fraction is 5/16". You might go to a print shop where they punch holes all-day-every-day for a living and see if they will give you some chads free for the asking.... but personally I like Ben's tip with the flesh-tone modelling clay better.

Hmmmm. Using an online fraction/decimal calculator, 5/16" converts to 0.3125, while 9/32" converts to 0.28125.

Still, if your digital caliper measured the hole as .299 (inches, I assume), then a 5/16" dot might be slightly closer to that size than a 9/32" dot (slightly larger, as opposed to slightly smaller, than the .299 target... but by slightly less of a difference).

Modeling clay might be fine for flesh tone, but I also want the flexibility of being able to match the gaff to closeup pads of various colors (black, green, red, etc).

A hole punch of the optimal size, and a typical random magazine full of photos featuring a vast array of colors and tones free for the punching-out, would seem to offer many possibilities.

The type of Chinatown Half that comes apart (separating in half with a bang ring) would be ideal. Paper or fabric inserts could be quickly, easily, and frequently changed (and if larger than the hole, kept securely in place without any adhesives), making the gaff much more versatile.

I really think it's an under-used and under-appreciated gaff. A Chinatown Half with an insert matching the color of a closeup pad could be substituted for a standard copper/silver coin in any number of c/s routines (if you also replace any additional English pennies normally also in play with matching Chinese coins). And the presence of the hole in the Chinese coin(s) seems to me to add an additional level of deception and seeming impossibility.

The Lassen model looks nice. I went to Schoolcraft's site, thinking to compare/contrast his Chinatown Half with Lassen's, but was surprised to discover that evidently he doesn't offer one. (Why not, I have to wonder?)

Let the record show that Kathy from Johnson Products has confirmed that they use 5/16" diameter white circle labels from Maco. Problem solved.