I just woke up from a dream (I know this sounds like the intro to a trick or joke, but I really did dream this) in which someone was going to teach me a trick called Trapeze Coins. Trapeze coins was a trick with gimmicked coins (in the dream the coins were in Johnson packaging) and the packet contained four pennies and a nickle. I didn't see how they were gimmicked.

I did not get to see it performed and so don't know what the effect was exactly. It may have used IT or a Raven or any other sort of thing. It could involve rope, or silks, or cards, or anything. It just has to have those four pennies and a nickle.

Here's the challenge. BEFORE you scroll down and have your own thoughts interrupted by others' suggestions, think about this setup and the name "Trapeze Coins" and imagine what the effect might be did such a trick exist in real life. (We can't discuss methods here, but if you think of a method, indicate whether or not you have thought of a way to make the trick possible).

Write what the effect would be if you invented a trick with these parameters.

The name intrigued me and I spent about an hour lying in bed imagining different effects that could use those coins and have that name. Feel free to take creative license. In fact, the license has been issued. Take the trick for a test drive.

Trapeze coins...What's the effect?

Welcome to the place where folks like Curits, Kainoa, Dan LeFay.... work.

Was there someting else in the package aside from the white sheet of instructions? Were there illustrations?

How about the four pennies stand on edge in a row and you balance the nickle in one of the litlle gaps made between two of the pennies then rolls along the edges to the last penny

Tom

Jonathan Townsend... so lots of different magicians have literally "dreamed up" their tricks? Cool!I saw only the coins themselves. No illustrations, no directions. The really frustrating part was that the person I was with in the dream was going to teach me and I woke up before the lesson started.

Great idea Tom! That's somewhat similar to one of the ideas I had. I imagined having the coins balance edge to edge, one on top of another. The four pennies with the nickle on top. That or two sets of pennies sitting in this manner and the nickle hops back and forth from one set to another. Like the nickle was a trapeze artist and the pennies were the trapeze. Maybe a whole routine of balancing with different patterns. The idea you mention would fit in perfectly.

I came up with another idea that's even more interesting, but I'm keeping that one to myself. I want to wait until I work out all the bugs and actually perform it. As far as I know it's never been done before, though the mechanism would actually be really simple.

"On the circus trapeze you have the 4 Flyers (pennies) on one side (hand) and the Catcher(nickle) on the othe side (hand).
The Flyers are agile and fast. If you blink you can miss them as they swing to the Catcher. That's one. You blinked didn't you?"

Basically a coins across effect with trapeze patter.

Steel and magnet could allow the pennies to hang from the nickle. You could switch one out later. A sticky substance of some kind could also be used.

How about a matrix type routine? You have four pennies in a row. You place the nickel on one, you cover it with your hand, and it jumps to a different penny.