After trying and not liking a couple of coin droppers, I decided to jury-rig up something, and it worked out very well.

I bought a flat, round magnet about the size of a quarter in the local hardware store for $1. Then I dropped it into the 3-pocket apron (like a waiter's apron) that I wear to hold and make change for purchases (I do a Svengali pitch and sell a few other small magic tricks along with it).

Finally, I took a shimmed half dollar and placed it on the outside of the rear side of the apron (between the apron and my pants). The coin stuck to the magnet in the apron pocket, and stayed exactly and securely where I wanted it.

Retrieving the coin was a piece of cake -- I just dropped my hand to the edge of the apron, with the back of the hand to the audience. In the act of supposedly straightening out the apron, the fingers slide the hidden coin into a perfect finger palm, right before the spec's eyes. It's noiseless, has no moving parts, requires no safety pins, velcro, clips, etc. and works every time.

I'm sure I wasn't the first person to think of this, but it was gratifying to work it out, and I just wanted to share the thought with everyone. Even if you don't wear an apron or a pouch, you could just drop the magnet into a side pocket of your jacket or vest and accomplish the same thing. SETH

Thanks for sharing!
I do something similar and also use it for ditches.

Mike

I dig ditches. (sorry couldn't let that chance for a pun get by)!

LOL

I converted an old work badge/ID holder that used strong magnets to clip it onto a shirt pocket(similar to a pocket protector). Since it had a metal shim to shunt the magnetism away from the outside, I slit open the magnet's pouch and reversed its orientation so that the strong magnetic field would be on the outside.

I haven't used this in performance but since I am to wear an ID when I perform at the hospital, this is a very innocent item to wear.

But please, lets not rig any jurys.


John

Seth, Good !DEA.

Thanks for sharing!

Hi Seth, I've been using magnetic holdouts using rare earth magnets (a very strong type of magnet) with much sucess. I place one magnet in each of my two back pockets and anchor them in place from inside the pants with a second magnet on each side. The nice thing about this is the holdout remains in place so that I know exactly where to place my hand to load or unload, I never have to worry about them shifting about. Also, I adjust the placement of the magnets so that they are just above the tails of my shirt or jacket to hide the items from prying eyes that may be behind me. This system has worked very well for me. Jess Cone, Salt Lake City, Ut.

Jess, no question this is a useful technique.

Just by chance I happened to be thumbing through Bobo looking for something else, when I noticed that he had a section on using a magnet in his discussion of a "Hoo Coin" (a hook coin). His was constructed and placed differently, and was used as a holdout rather than a dropper, but it's the same basic idea. As I said, I'm sure my idea was not original, but it was worked well for me. SETH

I do almost this exact same thing myself. I love the versatility it gives you. Of course I'm Canadian, and all our coins are magnetic, so I get a lot of use out of it.

John Long you stole my thunder... I recently came upon the badge holder magnet idea a while back myself... they have three powerful magnets and it works great! I got a bunch of them for free after working a convention.

I use double sided carpet tape. On one side I stick the magnet between a thin piece of felt. The sticky side sticks to most any fabric, and I tape it about 1" above the bottom of an un-tucked shirt, jacket or vest. Sometimes I can even move it from one shirt to another without changing out the tape.

This makes a handy hold out!

I've been messing around with rare earth magnets for several years, mostly as a result of some Warhammer 40K modeling I do for fun. They're great and there are TONS of possibilities for creating hold-outs, especially given the availability of steel-core coins.

Rich, do you ever have a problem sitting with the hold-out in place in terms of having the magnets latch onto your chair or other metal object in the vicinity? I'd like to put one together that will only allow the magnets to 'grab' things from the inside of my jacket, not from the outside. Still working on the mechanics...need some sort of flexible, non-ferous material that's thick enough to shield the charge of the magnets on one side.

I have been using belt clip magnets from Lee Valley Tools - they are very strong, but work well for what I need. And they just clip on to your pockets, pants, etc. They can be found here -
http://www.leevalley.com/home/currency.a......%2c42356

I am surprised that you did not mention this one:


http://www.themagiccafe.com/forums/viewt......3&15


HAHAHHA

C

I also use a magnet in my pocket. It works great for separating Coin Unique. Just get the coin near the magnet and it separates all by itself - like magic.