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I use the morgan dollar on occasion because I like the look but they are pretty big and pretty heavy. I like the walking statue of liberty coin, at least thats what I think its called, but everyone is more interested in the coin then the effect, and the coin is pretty cool. I really like using pieces of 8 in bizarre magic but again its very easy to loose the audience as they really like the coins.

Half dollars work in almost any situation as well as an English penny. The loonie and the twonie (canadian) also work well. Don't worry about the coin not fitting your hand properly, you just have to find a way to make them work for you. After all you can use a jumbo coin and you pretty much have to be one of those 7 foot basketball players to palm one of those puppies. Yet you can still make them work.

I dug out the pre-decimal penny (1917, George V in half decent condition) I knew I had lying around and have been playing with it. I think I want more.

I find the extra 0.4mm over my Kennedy half makes the classic palm, back palm and front finger hold so much easier.

I want more, and I might have a look into milling the edges somehow. The extra grip would be nice whatever happens.

Since playing with the penny, I'm finding the half much easier too. I'm quite happy about it all really.

BigShot wrote:I'd read that milled edges made some things easier, I've not got the experience to know just how much easier though.

I wonder, would milling the edge, if done neatly, be subtle enough? I wonder how many people, if any, would pick up on it.

I personally wouldn't bother. I've never tried it but it's easy to palm a coin and relying on effectively a gaff means you can only palm that particular coin

You've got a point there. I'd thought about that and you've confirmed it.
All that remains to do now is get a few more pennies and maybe a [ and a f*****r (dunno what needs blanking and not on these things so I'll err on caution - I'm sure you all know what I mean though) to match.
Fun fun fun!


EDIT
Any suggestions where I might find that kind of thing in pre-decimal penny form? Something more to the budget end of the scale than the high-price precision pieces would be good for now.

I once had a great chat with David Roth. He has a set of Half Dollars, he's had them since he was a teenager and they are polished within an inch of their little silver lives.

They look beautiful, flash and very unusual. This is great for his performance because it's not supposed to look like he's just borrowed a couple of coins.

There is a big difference in coin magic between the formal style which is very much based on the coins and as the magic as an art and the opposite which is the worker style magic...the "borrow a few coins and perform with them". I think it has to come down to which you would rather perform.

I don't do much coin work, but I have a few silver dollars, matching chinese coin for a spellbound routine and of course, a load of shined up silver half dollars.

I do however have ahabit of palming any loose change in my pocket so really, coin size isn't an issue.

If you want to perform quick impromtu routines, then of course forget any kind of foreign currency.

Good point there, Lenoir (Maybe not just a mouth teenager after all!)

Since this whole magic lark is (for now at least) very much a hobby thing rather than a job, I find myself drawn to learning all sorts of things, so I don't have one particular what I'd like to perform yet.

I've currently got a load of coins on my desk. 5 Deutsche Marks, 5 French Francs, Several old 50p coins, some modern 2p and 10p coins and a few Euro bits and bobs too. They all get palmed and otherwise manhandled through the day.

I don't intend getting stuck on any one kind of coin as I really like the impromptu approach... though I'd also like to do the coins appear one by one - do something mind blowing (yea right! maybe in a few years...) - and make them all vanish again type of trick as I think they look fantastic.

On the foreign currency front, I'll be practicing with Euros as I do spend as much time as I can (though not as much as I'd like) in Ireland and France - but I feel you're right that practicing with the local coinage is the smart move for the "anyone got a bunch of 10p coins?" style.

Another thing about P***ing, I found that I practiced with a certain coin, and the hard part of the transition wasn't the size, but rather the sides.

For example, US Half dollars have very soft rounded edges whereas Old English Pennies have very blunt edges. I found it very hard to hold the silver coin as it kept sliding out of the right position (bingo). The way I got round that whilst training the other hand (bingo) was to learn with a soft edged coin as going to a blunt edged coin is an easier transition.

At the minute I tend to make it up as I go along with regards to which kind of coin I find easier to use. The ones that seem to give me the most trouble at the moment are the non-round ones like a 50p, though that doesn't come as much of a surprise.

I dunno quite what you mean by Bingo though. Am I missing something really obvious?

Ahh, I am referring to the Innuendo Bingo that can be found in the Dove's Head forum.
I am just making sure I don't get quoted TOO much!

Ah of COURSE!
I think I just gave away how often I visit that part of the board, not very often!

For a minute there I thought it might have been a reference to getting the coin in the perfect place and "bingo" - but it didn't seem to flow properly fo that to be the truth.

It does make a lot more sense now - and on that topic - good calls on the Bingo - they'd have been quotable alright!

Just a suggestion BigShot, I am usually a disliker of Theory11 and their magic style etc, but I recently bought Chris Kenner's 3 Fly video from their.
I think after you have mastered the absolute two basic coin positions and performed some simple routines, it is an excellent step to take.
It doesn't use any hard moves, but it does take what you know and increase the difficulty. It creates a short and fast illusion that is entertaining and you'll learn a lot from it.

Consider it "on the list".
I've been looking at a few things - and had seen 3 Fly mentioned somewhere - so I'll probably end up buying that now. I may have something else to get from the Theory11 mob soonish anyway so I might have to order a few bits at once to save on separate shipping costs... though I think it'll jump in price if the package gets too bulky.

I sincerely hope this isn't early-stage CUPS. I've got far too much to save up for.
I wonder if I can get my ISP to block the sites where I can get the highly engineered coin gaffs before the temptation to blow the hard-earned on it becomes too great.
I think I've got the willpower to get only the more ordinary ones rather than splurging three figures on one... for now.

I have milled a few coins in my time and you can always tell (if your looking for it) a coin with grooves ADDED but its harder to spot when you've just enhanced an existing milled edge by filing the grooves of every other one a bit.

Noted.
Cheers for that info. Looking at this penny, the grooves would have to be very narrow to avoid cutting right through the rim/border part.
Think I'll see how I get on with just plain ol' pennies for the time being and leave milling as a future project "for educational purposes".

You could also try a Half Crown? It's slightly bigger than an old penny/half dollar and has a nice, crisp, milled edge. They also have the advantage of being fairly cheap to buy on ebay (I got about a dozen for about £3). Disadvantage is the lack of gaffs for this coin. Old pennies are even cheaper though and it's sometimes worth looking out for British West/East African pennies as they are exactly the same size as old english ones but with the added bonus of having a beautiful design front and back and a very useful hole in the middle for use in any 'coin on silk/string' routine. You can view some pics of them, and others, on this thread:

http://www.talkmagic.co.uk/ftopic33701.php