The title is almost self-explanatory! Is there a way to wear the coins down to make them soft while retaining most of coin?

Rock tumbler?

I don't own one and am looking for another method if possible

It's a fuss to emory cloth the edges round and take down the high-relief details on a coins. The idea is to round the edges, not lower them. What makes coins "soft" is the loss of sharp corner/edges and also the pitted and somewhat grime filled surfaces. Simply smooth may allow them to slide, but still tough to get them stacked quietly.

According to Daryl in his 3 Fly III video, the method used by The Professor was a Whet Stone and a bit of oil. Slide the coin over the surface of the whet stone in a figure eight pattern to promote even wear and prevent a bowl effect in the coin surface. I personally don't know. I simply buy slicks from coin dealers. They are HAPPY to get rid of them at a fair profit.

Skip

Skip, that approach leaves the rims sharp. The idea is to make them rounded.

Kirkg knows some tricks in this arena.
Bothersome nicks can be taken care of like so...


Kirk took a pocketknife to one of my coins.
I asked him what the **** he was doing.
He told me to shut up and he proceeded to fixed it up real nice.

Much softer than before.
Thanks again kirk.

I have made these myself very easily. You simply wet sand the coins in a figure eight pattern on a very fine grade of emory cloth. If you can access a buffing wheel, use jewelers rouge to finish. You should make sure the surface you are using is perfectly flat, such as a marble top, or glass top.

Jon, you are correct that you will have sharp edges with this method, but I haven't found that to be a serious noise problem. I actually have found it to make palming a lot easier. I never felt the need to take the edges down. But as Frank said, it can be dealt with fairly easily.

A word of warning - you will lose the patina of the coin by sanding the coin somewhat. I buffed mine to a mirror finish which makes the visibility strong. If you need to re-darken them, that is another story...

Hmmm, guess I'll just go buy some soft morgans...no sense in ruining the nice ones I own!!!!

The noise comes from the fact that the features of the coin are on various planes. The object is to get them all on the same plane. Do it right and they will actually stick together when you "wring" them together. The edges have nothing to do with the noise, but may help in other moves. Get the whole surface on the same plane (read flat) and they will be deadly silent. Grime them up a little from there and they will be silent and sticky. You should be able to stack all 4 coins, vanish them as a single unit, since they stick together, and be done with it.

Bonehead, some practice DOING the Ramsay tricks will quickly show up the basic problem that when you are doing ONE AT A TIME pivot vanishes, the coins need some smoothing on the rims so they don't scrape as you get them into the position you described. Then, as you described, the flat surfaces offer some advantages for quiet transfers of the coins en-masse.

Best way to soften the coins is to practice with the coins over and over. It will wear the coins down nicely without "disfiguring" them with the quick methods suggested.

I've heard that very often, but it never works for me. They always end up chipped, especially the edges, which actually makes it less soft when palmng in stacks.

In any case I just buy soft coisn with silver. With nickel or other metals, I don't mind sanding. About the edge, I just apply more force or sand the edge especially at the end to solve that. I have a nice set, soft as.. snow? Some similar similie.

Jonathon, not sure what the capital DOING was meant to imply to me. Maybe I'm reading that wrong, but I did not say that it working on the edges had no effect. I said that it had no affect on the noise. I did also say "The edges have nothing to do with the noise, but may help in other moves".

Apologizes if you were not implying anything by the capitalized words. The softened edges could very well have plenty to do in aiding with certain moves, but they have zero to do with the sound issue. I'm assuming no one would even take a newish type coin and sand it all the way down to flat, and leave the super sharp edges. The coin wouldn't look naturally worn at all.

Bonehead, some us have been DOING the Ramsay routines long enough to KNOW (capitalization = knowledge from direct physical experience) that the edges affect the ease of handling.

After the coins are stacked, the feature you discussed becomes significant. Anything that interferes with quietly getting the coins stacked also risks negating the benefits of the sliding. If they year a click or scrape, they know what you are doing. And from then on it's, "Oh how clever you are" instead of "Wow, another coin has vanished."

Here's how I do it....
http://www.JamesRiser.com/Magic/Softening/Coins.html

BTW - a rock tumbler is not a good method. It does not duplicate the natural smoothing of coins; but, rather, beats up the entire coin surface.

Jim

Jonathan, I never implied I knew the routine or the validity of it. You seemed to be defensive and put the impression that those who don't know, shouldn't be speaking. The question was how to soften coins, which I explained, as did others. The question was not how to soften the coins for the Ramsay routine.

If you have knowledge that the edges matter, great! As I said, in any process of PROPERLY softening them, the edges would certainly not be left sharp.

The whole thing about "soft" coins ( seems to a Roth term, thanks David ) came from the well worn Half Crowns used in the Ramsay tricks. The third and fourth vanishes in the Cylinder and Coins routine are much easier when the coins are soft.

Soft coins feel funny in your hands. Really. They don't seem to scrape around each other in your hands the way regular coins do. That funny feeling is likely what prompted David to call them "soft". Merely smooth does not do it. Heck, I spent a few weeks in high school sanding some coins, then lacquering them and still not the same as well worn coins. James Riser's process looks very good.

Mr Riser, thanks for that great photo 'tour' of the process. Very cool!

I have used the method mentioned in the 3 Fly III dvd by Daryl and also mentioned above by Skip. It works fine on silver dollars.
Richard