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Effect: You take a borrowed 10p coin, and visibly bite a chunk right out of it! Taking the bitten-off piece, you visibly restore the coin; the bitten off bit can either be thrown or 'spat' back onto the coin before handing it back to the spector!

Price: Cost around £10

Rating: 2

Review: 9/10

Overall: This is an excellent trick which looks very slick and impressive, yet is dead easy to perform if you can switch coin.

Don't you think that this trick is self-defeating, in the sense that nobody will believe you can really bite a coin in two, and will therefore suspect immediately that the coin is gaffed?

The reason I don't like this trick is that you are allowing the spectator to know that gaffed coins exist just to pull off a silly stunt. If the same audience sees any other coin trick after that, they'll suspect the coin is fake every time.

I see your point but what makes this good is the spector gives you the coin and you give the coin back, as long as you know how to hide it then honestly its a brilliant trick

I disagree with Caubeck on the bite out coin.

Every trick has it's time and place, even the bite out coin. The real secret is spotting that time and place and exploiting it when people LEAST expect it.

I rarely do this one but when I do the reactions make it worthwhile.

I did this one recently on children in need day and was stood next to a charity bucket that people were THROWING loose change into. To immediately appear to pull out a 50p (obviously the bite out coin), bite off the end and then spit the end back on and then throw a replacement back into the bucket got me some reactions that even surprised me.

Nobody once asked, suggested or implied that the coin was fake as it appeared to have been immediately thrown back in the bucket. I do have a variety of these coins including a 10p, 50p and 2p version and I would advise that you rotate the coins if used in a similar scenario.

You can also do a rub away routine instead of a bite out - just in case you weren't aware. Stick with it and don't be put off. I'm sure that most people (laymen) who've seen it on TV think it's a camera trick anyway.

Well, I don't have a TV, but if I did there is no way I would believe the magician is so powerful that he can bite a coin into pieces. I honestly can't believe anyone would believe that.

Maybe this does work with children, but it's not the kind of magic I would recommend. Most people don't know gaffed coins exist, so it leads a mature thinker directly to a conclusion we'd rather they never reach.

Just my opinion.

How about for example Pen through their borrowed note? Would you be concerned about exposing a gimmicked pen to a logical thinker?

That point is very true, from what you see "David Blane" do on TV is completely different to what actually is happening, I've filmed all my tricks and TV dose prove to hide the secrets more than live performances

Happy Toad wrote:

How about for example Pen through their borrowed note? Would you be concerned about exposing a gimmicked pen to a logical thinker?

I think the point that caubeck was making has been missed. It is impossible to bite through metal however it is possible to push a pen through a note.

I can see what pros and cons may arise from the impossibility of what you are doing during an effect but the fact remains that most (if not all) magic effects are done by the magician and can not be repeated by laymen as they are impossible to replicate.
It is because something is impossible that we do it. The more impossible something seems the bigger the effect is on the audience.

I think the point that caubeck was making has been missed. It is impossible to bite through metal however it is possible to push a pen through a note

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I think the point that HappyToad was making has been missed. It is impossible to RESTORE a hole made by a pen pushed through a note, and yet it is still done.

Some effects I don't do personally due to the sheer impossibility of them, but that is a failing on my part as a magician. I have seen other people do these effects wonderfully - yes, even the bitten coin, that make it look like magic is happening. It's another argument for how important presentation is...

caubeck wrote:Don't you think that this trick is self-defeating, in the sense that nobody will believe you can really bite a coin in two, and will therefore suspect immediately that the coin is gaffed?

The reason I don't like this trick is that you are allowing the spectator to know that gaffed coins exist just to pull off a silly stunt. If the same audience sees any other coin trick after that, they'll suspect the coin is fake every time.

And of course the fact that a card can rise to the top of the deck every time or that you can links solid rings of metal or saw a woman in half etc is all totaly believeable:roll:... Thats what magicians do, The Impossible

I do this trick all the time, any time I get a R5 (South African currancy) coin in my change from a shop I'll switch in the bite thru coin & "Accuse" the assistant of trying to fob a fake off on me...
I've never once had some one suspect the coin especially considering I let them examine the coin afterwards.

Like just about everthing else in magic, it's the way you do it that counts. The old cliche still applies - there are no bad tricks, just bad presentations.

Having said that, if someone doesn't feel confident or impressed with a particular trick then they shouldn't do it. They need to be right behind such effects to make them work and if they don't 'believe' then neither will the specs.

I think the point that HappyToad was making has been missed. It is impossible to RESTORE a hole made by a pen pushed through a note, and yet it is still done.

I think the point I was making has largely been missed.

When a pen passes through a note and leaves it undamaged an audience can only reach three conclusions: the note is gimmicked, the pen is gimmicked, or some kind of optical illusion has taken place. (Okay, they can also believe the magician has amazing super powers, but this is the least likely theory.) With so many possibilities, plus the fact that normal humans actually can push pens through notes, there is no heat on any particular item. The heat is evenly spread, as it were, and nobody is any the wiser. The three theories are rational.

But with a coinbite, the possibilities are more problematic: the coin is gimmicked, the teeth are gimmicked, or an optical illusion has taken place.

People do not expect a magician to use gimmicked teeth. Even if he did it wouldn't explain the restoration of the coin at the end. But the "optical illusion" theory makes no sense either. You can fold a dollar bill in curious ways to achieve all kinds of effects, but you can't fold a metal coin.

So, all the heat is on the coin. You can switch it as much as you like, but nobody will think the answer lies anywhere else.

Anyway, as Mandrake says, if you can get away with it and the trick works for you, then that's not a bad thing.

Just my opinions, mind. Don't misinterpret me. I'm not passionately against bitten coin tricks in any way!

Coin biting used to be very common in the days when folks didn't trust the purity of the gold used in them so there's a certain precedence for it. Having watched the old original David Blaine TV program last week where he did this and cig thru coin for the first time, it all worked very well and was quite believable because he played the bitten coin as more of a joke than anything miraculous.

I suppose I shouldn't say this but whilst reading this thread, and an old one about getting practice by doing free gigs at old folks homes, the manic thought shot across my mind that you should never ever ask to borrow a coin at an old folks home - they always take 15 minutes to find change when in a supermarket checkout queue so you stand no chance when they're sitting down. Also, never ever show the oldies a coin being bitten as they might try the same thing and you'd be seriously injured with all those flying dentures screaming across the room! (Sorry, very sorry!)

When a pen passes through a note and leaves it undamaged an audience can only reach three conclusions: the note is gimmicked, the pen is gimmicked, or some kind of optical illusion has taken place.

Since the note is a borrowed one I think the average person would discount a gimmicked note. Since the pen is clearly shown from multi angles to be passing through the note optical illusion is also very unlikely.
That leaves a gimmicked pen. However since you hand the pen out for inspection this too appears to be ruled out. Just the same with the coin. Yes the logical mind will suspect the coin, but if you are led to believe the coin can be examined and still nothing is found, then it becomes very powerful.

I think you are thinking as a magician rather than the average spectator.