talkmagic.co.uk

Hi

Witout sounding like a moron.. anyone else have difficulty doing sleight of hand with Uk coins.. the american coins work so much better.. but I will never perform with them being from the Uk

Is this just me and lack of practice.. or is this an issue? I am new (ish) to coin magic

I.D wrote:but I will never perform with them being from the Uk

Just do it, start with just once and no one will mind. Then keep on doing it

You can use USA coins. I use classic coin transpo and hopping halves. These are both USA coins. Using UK coins is just a matter of practise.

I totally agree with Stephen.

Practice makes perfect. I see many people using half dollars and they say it's due to size but I find that the £2 coin is very similar in size and handles just the same. The difference is that when people see magic using their own currency they are less suspicious.

I guess so... so the best place to get us coins?? just go to a bank i gues and ask for brand new us curreny?

and what are the best us coins to work with?

My coin rolls are a lot better with a half dollar than they are with a 50p or £2 coin! Could be something to do with the weight or the size that makes it seem like that!

You don't want new coins! The best coins for magic are worn ones that give you some friction. Banks in the UK don't deal with foreign coins - only paper money.

The standard for magic seems to be half dollars and the cheapest that I've seen are on NUMS. Some dealers charge around the £1 per half dollar coin so shop around and you'll pick them up for around 60p each or better still, get someone who's going to the USA on holiday to bring you some back.

If anyone questions your using US coinage you just say that it is because they are larger and so it makes it easier for the spectatorsto follow what's going on. Similarly so for using old UK pennies.

I do a lot of my palming/coin moves with a 2p peice, that seems to be the perfect size for me. Next best is a 10p peice.

Never tried with American coins so i don't know any different.

US coins are a fair bit bigger and certainly easier to handle (although i have to say I'm pretty rubbish with coins anyway and tend to rely on gimmicks). 2p pieces are ok, though and I do use them. However, I guess the problem is that you get used to the handling of certain coinage, so if you start with halves i is a chore to then work smaller. I can't really comment on techniques beyond basic palming and disappears etc as I haven't the expertise.

This is one of those things where there's no right and no wrong.

It's whatever suits you but whatever you decide upon, one thing is for sure and that's you need to practice.

Practice can overcome most difficulties- sometimes it's just finding a slightly different technique

I am not familiar with UK cons (since I am from the US) but could the perceived advantage to US coins be due to the edges? US coins have ridges on the edges (coins of value greater than $0.05). The edges do make certain sleights easier.

Having not used UK coins I am not certain but I think that they do not have the ridges. Can someone either correct or confirm my understanding of UK coins?

No, you're quite right - UK coins above 10p don't have ridged edges, except the pound... and I really think you'd just never use a £1 coin for magic, it just wouldn't seem right... they're small, for a start, and speaking as a student, you can't afford for them to roll under the door/your bed etc. when you're practicing!
I tend to use 2ps or 10ps when doing UK coin magic. I do also use half dollars - I don't think anyone would suspect you of using a dupe 1/2 dollar any more than a dupe 2p, perhaps less so as they could probably imagine that you only have a limited number of 1/2 dollars.

However, if you want to do magic with "the spectator's coin", best use 2ps. My Coin Unique is the 10p/2p version (available from merlins of wakefield - fantastic quality) simply because hardly any coin tricks are suited to either £1 or 1p pieces - 2ps and 10ps are the easiest to use, so in terms of doing multiple tricks and switching in and out the Coin Unique, I still think this is the better option.

I made a conscious effort when I started with coins to only use UK ones as those were the type I'd always have available and could borrow if need be. I'm glad I did now because having learned with the 'harder' coinage I can work with most types of coin if need be. For example I did Mr Clean coins across on Saturday using pound coins and it worked just fine. Fair enough it takes longer and is more frustrating to learn with UK coinage but the rewards are better.

Ive practiced for years doing coin rolls with 10p because they are nearly the same size as american quater. After experimenting, i found that 2ps were better because the edge of them has a slight 'lip' on the edge that helps me grip them better as i drop them down by my pinkie to my thumb underneath