I have Coin Unique, but not this one. Watching the video, they look basically the same. With the routine I came up with, you hand the spectator the half, and have never been burned as all the attention is on the duplicate quarter that I produce. It basically looks like you are spending the extra $20 for the dvd of routines (you can get Coin Unique for $55 shipped from Stevens Magic).

Bob Phillips

Bob Swadling - a true craftsman.

That said, I just think it's incredible that a bloke who decries other manufacturers for ripping off his 'flipper coin', has no problem copying Eddie Gibson's 'Coin Unique' principle (even down to 'borrowing' the name within this coin's marketing).

Double standards in magic? Never!

I have to say, I was inclined to think the same thing until I found out about the significant improvements, which address some common complaints with Gibson's work. If someone wants to step up the quality (as opposed to creating inferior copies of effects), I am not sure that is something that I want to discourage.

Alan

Apparently you folks don't realize that Bob Swadling also lays claim to being the originator of the Coin Unique!

With one of Bob's effects I purchased I received a separate DVD about Bob Swadling, his magic and history. On it Mark Mason conducts a rather lengthy interview with Bob and during the course of that interview, Mark mentioned something about using the "coin unique" concept in one of Bob's effects and then stops and says that he probably shouldn't mention "coin unique" to him. Bob just gives him a sidelong glance - kind of a "dirty look". The implication strong that Bob was the creator.

I haven't read anything else that expands on that. I think the DVD might have come with my Triception set.

Jim

Interesting point Jim.

As far as I can remember back, I think that the Gibson Coin Unique came onto the market around 1974. David Nixon was the first person that I ever saw perform with one on T.V.

Bob Swadling used to make a lot of tricks for Ken Brooke in the early 1970's - but I can't remember any of ken's effects that incorporated a coin unique. When Ken bought up the magic stocks of Fred Lowe (around 1969?), there were a lot of coin/metal items but again, nothing springs to mind that mirrored one.

So that's a mystery then! If it was being manufactured pre-74 (or the Gibson version) I wonder who was selling it?

That said, and for a couple of reasons (that it's probably not the place to go into here), I now take anything that Mark Mason says with a pinch of salt.

Yeah, I did a little research - only as far as online search engines and my not-so-extensive magic library could take me - into the origins of the Coin Unique but I couldn't really find much about it. I definitely did not find Bob Swadling's name associated with it other than this latest offering from JB Magic. I need to rewatch that DVD to see exactlly what was said. However I did get the impression that the name "Coin Unique" annoyed Bob S. so perhaps he had a similar gimmick that was called by another name.

Jim

Folks: Just wanted to say thanks to all for this thread. I'm on Mark Mason's JB Magic website right now trying to decide whether or not to buy miracle coin unique. The info in this thread is extremely helpful to me in making that decision. Thanks!