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Just heard the news that as of 2017 the current £1 coin will be replaced by a 12 sided coin. Along with the introduction of the no-tear currency notes, it looks like money magic will need to adapt!

true enough but a marker and 12 signs of the zodiac, a simple force and you have a mental miracle in your pocket.
have a double side coin made with the queens head at right angles to each side...... crazy compass

plastic bank notes with see through portions lend themselves for visible transformations especially if allied with say a signature change on a card or other special playing card, just a few musings.

Indeed there are a lot of possibilities even when faced with an enforced change and I do like the Zodiac idea, thank you Jason. On the distaff side I can just hear the resounding clunk as the bottom drops out of the market for anything using the current £1 coin! Having said that there seems to be continuing life in the old English pennies which we stopped using in 1971 - all of 43 years ago.

Bimetallic coins lend themselves towards "pop out the middle of the coin" tricks (there have, of course, been coins with a manufacturing defect - like a certain run of Canadian "toonies", I hear - that could have this done simply by freezing/heating them just-right, but this shouldn't be possible with a properly-made bimetallic coin without destroying the coin). For all of you that are into coin bending (and can pull off a convincing finger palm), imagine how cool it'd be to pop out the middle of a "borrowed" pound coin, put it back, and then return the coin to your spectator for inspection (and then watch them try to replicate your feat for the rest of the night). Surely it's possible for somebody to manufacture/adapt the necessary gimmick for such a feat.

Do we have measurements for the new coin, yet? In the photo George Osborne tweeted it looks like they're larger than the current pound coin (which'll fettle anybody who does a three coin monte using exact-fit cups) but smaller than the £2 coin, which leads to interesting new possibilities for people with £2 shells...

Excellent idea Dan, let's keep those idea flowing folks.....

I saw a post on the same topic, on Reddit shortly after I saw this thread. There, magicians from Canada, New Zealand and Australia bemoaned their "plastic money" - polymer banknotes which fold differently from the cotton ones we're used to and are harder to damage or destroy, which has a knock-on effect on all kind of tricks. And, of course, we're getting those, too, in 2016. Clearly there'll be a change in the way that a lot of magic featuring banknotes has to be done, too, over the coming years.

I suppose there were similar difficulties when the size of the 5p, 10p, and 50p coins was reduced. The old 5p/shilling was the same as the US quarter which meant a lot of American tricks could be used with UK coins.

I was just talking to a young'un today who didn't remember the old 5p and 10p coins at all - makes one feel quite old!

I mentioned to my partner, this evening, that the upcoming changes to currency might affect magicians, many of whom are used to working with the particular shape, size, foldability etc. of the currency we already have, and she - more-than-a-little sarcastically - said "What, the Mint didn't think of the magicians? Outrageous!"

Perhaps we should form an international lobby group, with the aim of encouraging the governments of the world to make sure that their money is most-suitable for magic. I'm thinking... the "Currency Committee of Consulting Conjurers", or something. It even lends itself to a logo:



(okay, perhaps I'm getting a little silly, now...)

Get those nooses and flaming torches ready, we march on 11 Downing Street tomorrow!!!!!

Imagine a protest where every single magician in the UK attends and instead of chanting etc... we all just perform out acts, at exactly the same time, with no particular audience required.
That would be interesting to see.

Mandrake wrote:I suppose there were similar difficulties when the size of the 5p, 10p, and 50p coins was reduced. The old 5p/shilling was the same as the US quarter which meant a lot of American tricks could be used with UK coins.

I think you'll find that the current 10p is the same size as the old 5p, but I do tend to get confused about sizes - it's an age thing. The current £2 coin is about the same size as the old 10p/florin.

I can only think of one effect that works best with the current £1 coin; it's pretty useless for most coin magic. I've actually gone back to using old pennies; there are some moves that I just can't do with a smaller coin. I wish I'd kept some half-crowns too; if I ever do coin magic regularly I'll probably buy some.

The constant mucking about with our coinage is a the main reason why I've never bought a coin gaff.

Barry

An interesting article from the perspective of a blind person: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazin ... r-26637515

Note the line - "The Royal Mint consults with interested parties such as Age Concern and the RNIB when designing new currency."
Do we qualify as an interested party? I some how doubt The Royal Mint would consider magicians to be an interested party!

Begs the question - if you could design your own currency, what features would you want to include? For instance there are a lot of published effects only possible with US currency, would you like to add those features to new currency?
Are there any non magical features you would like to add?

FTHO wrote:Imagine a protest where every single magician in the UK attends and instead of chanting etc... we all just perform out acts, at exactly the same time, with no particular audience required.
That would be interesting to see.

Sounds like a magic-themed flashmob - a group of people turn up and start appearing/disappearing things, fanning cards at people, popping coins and sponge balls out of the air, levitating stuff, cutting somebody in half... and then, 2 minutes later, just walk their separate ways...

would love to be there...

So we just turn up and saw Osborne, Cameron etc in half and leave without putting them back together... gets my vote !