One advantage to having some facility with sleight of hand is:

After you do the Scotch and Soda trick you can leave the coins on the table and later on let any "wise acres" look at the coins - even leave a bang ring next to them and watch the fun.

Yea When I worked in a Magic shop I used to Say " here let me get those apart for you" Spin the half on the table and have the real copper coin C.P. Slap the hand down on top of the half Leaving both coins On the Table. Walk away And then Watch the Fun! Those where great times!

I do " dime in penny bit for magicians. And then give them the penny
All done with one dime... one penny.

As somebody who just became interested in coin magic I can already tell the difference. I've been doing card stuff for a little over a year now and I was at my local shop and decided to buy scotch and soda. Since its the only trick I know and it's a gimmick I feel almost annoyed with myself when I do it to friends. Because that's all I can do with it. Sure you can change the trick a little with different variations but it all seems the same. So I bought bobo's book and some half dollars and put scotch and soda away. Sure maybe I'll bring it back out one I'm better, but as a card guy I look at it like this... would I rather know how to work a deck of cards, or would I rather only carry around an invisible deck(or a couple gimmick decks) with me? The choice is obvious to me..

Yea good luck With Bobo's There Is some great stuff in there! And in a year or two When you are ready, You can come back And do so killer stuff With S.O.H. S&S And A deck of cards!

You could treat the s and s,coins as 2 coins (which the are) and do a 2 coin routine.

I will pose "devil's advocate" and ask; why is it considered any different to use an extra coin rather than a gimmick in a necessary routine?...

...of course this is just curiosity, I have my own predispositions; this post sparked an epiphany, because I realize that many(if not most) sleight-of-hand artists consider it to be legitimately pure sleight of hand to use an extra coin

There are coin moves that use no coins -- at least for one of the phases of a coins across. Also, there is the famous "Never Was" vanish. A "one ahead" position often employes either an extra coin or a gaffed one. A "one behind" position empoys fewer coins than the audience thinks you have,

These are still sleight of hand as the hands act as if they hold a coin and mimic the exact earlier moves in which a coin existed.

Well it cost less! But to me It's the same! I only go by " If it where really Magic How would it LOOK!!! "

Considered by whom
As different from what?

Are you working for those who see through your methods to critique your choices?

First, welcome to the Café fringe.

Since you're sorta playing "devil's advocate" (and so you probably know which you ask, in that case, rhetorically here), I would simply say as to this…An extra coin has to be manipulated as the others, while a gimmicked coin is doing something for you as you manipulate it. Probably that's why in an ungaffed effect like Roth's, Winged Silver or Chink-a-Chink, it doesn't matter which coin is the extra coin, because it must still be manipulated as the rest, not to mention you don't even remember exactly which is the extra coin at the end of the effect.

In some contrast here, I've seen Coins Thru Table done with a gaff, and you can only use that particular coin to appear as two coins when you drop it to so visually to become one. Or in Roth's Shell Coins Across, you must keep track of where the gaff is to help create the magic and to be able to vanish it to end the effect.

Finally, I guess the argument can also be made that both type coins are doing something for you. In that basic way perhaps they are somewhat the same, only very different, or something like that.

Again, welcome.

-Mb

Its the failure mode and reset considerations when using gaffs that got me motivated to use regular coins where practical.

When folks are affected by a trick done close up they do stuff.

Yea That's WHY I Always Say you Have to know WHEN to do a trick! Not Just HOW!

The only time sleight-of-hand is a detriment is when

A. you're using it to show off or with speed instead of concealing something completely. (and I'm not talking about a flourish).
B. you're doing something that completely makes no actual sense.


For some reason, too many coin workers do this and they just don't realize how much they:
1. flash
2. look like they are doing something, albeit fast and skillfully (instead of going completely unnoticed).
3. Do something that makes no sense in the real world, such as putting a coin in a hand and taking it right back out for no reason whatsoever.

Watch a coin video with the volume off and you'll see all sorts of horrible mistakes.

I was watching a few youtube videos on Dean Dill's "no extras" a couple days ago (volume down) and each one of them completely missed the point.
I won't go into detail but too many of the visible things that were done had no actual purpose.

Made me feel like nobody actually bought the trick to learn how it was supposed to be done. They just learned from some other YouTube video that was poorly done... and so on, and so on...

Yea I have been Telling Guys To SLOW DOWN !!! For years!

I used to do a routine about Caffeinated Magician.
Even then, I got feedback to slow down. Of course this doesn't mean putting our audiences to
Sleep.

Whether I do one of McClintock 's routines (start with 100 coins c/p in each hand or a simple gimmicked "HH" effect, connection , emotion and entertainment ....

Harris
Palms of aluminum foil for a lighter touch in coin magic

Love it. Maybe I should perform Bill Palmer's Scotch and Soda from now on

:)

Sleightof hand is fun !

Okay, now what about your audiences if you perform?

If I'm having fun, so is my audience. If I've worked really hard at an effect, I enjoy showing it to people much more than if I learnt it straight away. I know working on presentation is just as important (and in most cases, more work), but if you're naturally enthusiastic about a routine, the presentation seems to work almost by itself!