I am fairly unexperienced with gaffed coins. Most of my collection of props are die boxes, coin in impossible places, ball vases, and linking rings, etc. Of the currently active coin craftsmen, what gaffed tricks would you recommend and by whom? The tricks should be fairly easy to perform, but the craftmanship must be the best. I am only familiar with a couple of names. When I was last active (30 years ago) most of the names were different...

Always good to start at the beginning, and with that, Welcome…😊

Firstly, it’s probably better to start with the basic coin sleights before jumping to the gaffed stuff, but that said, there are a few of ways to go…

1- Gaffed coin tricks. A few that are easy enough to do would include, Scotch & Soda or Dime & Penny, Hopping Halves, etc.

2- Gaffed coins. The two I have used for years in conjunction with added regular coins would be a C/S Coin, and a Shell. With these, you can learn to do a lot. 😉

3- Gaffed coins that use other objects in the trick, like Lethal Tender, the old Nickels to Dimes, and the Okito Coin Box

All these mentioned aren’t difficult to get into, and nice to start out playing around with. I would also add that you grab a copy of Bobo’s New Modern Coin Magic. It will address both kinds of coin magic and how they interrelate.

Lastly, good coin makers like TWOCAN, Roy Kueppers, and Johnson’s Coins are good roads to travel as to gaffed coins and trick sets. They can be easily reached from right here on the Café or out online.

Good journey to you, and welcome back. 😊

…Oh, and there’s a wonderful DVD set by Eric Jones called “Metal,” that expertly covers all this stuff quite well and thoroughly. 😉 He evolved into quite an exceptional magician from right here on The Café, especially as to coin magic, definitely one of the very best.

Thank you very much. That is a lot of good information. I have had a chance to look at their websites and find it a bit overwhelming with all the choices of coins and finishes... I do have a new Airship Magic made Leathal Tender that I love. I will be giving Roy a call shortly. I have been looking for some original Steve Dusheck tricks but they are near impossible to find.

My pleasure. 😊

If you’re not ready for all the more custom choices, just keep it simple and get the old reliable, English Penny/ Kennedy Half Dollar c/s coin. I still have the same one I’ve had for years now, and it’s still top shelf. Got it from Johnson’s Coins. Always a good price and great quality. Got my half dollar shell from there as well. Match it all with the right half dollar coins, and you’re as ready as you ever have to be as to this stuff. 😁

And you can’t go wrong with anything from Mad Jake at Airship, their work is primo, and they are the authoized sellers for Dusheck’s marvelous works. I knew Steve, and I’m sure he would approve of what they did with his classic, Lethal Tender. Man, what a creative genius he was. 🙏🏽

So the question is - Johnson's website appears to be down. Do they only sell through distribution? Who is the better supply chain?

It is my understanding that since the begining of the pandemic, they stopped coin production until further notice.

Another site you may wish to visit for your c/s needs is
https://perch-star-nbdt.squarespace.com/home

His customer service is up there with Mad Jake's Airship Magic and he does quality work.

There are number of highly skilled craftsmen popping up over the last 2 years.

Of the one that I can think of and I've purchased from are

Ronal Davies from UK
Luciano from China

I own number of Todd Lassen (bless him) and schoolcraft's gaffs, I can honestly say the names that I mentioned above are of the similar quality to Todd and Jamie.

you can get hold of Ronald very easily on facebook, easy communication, quick turnaround.
but you have to have a special connection in order to get Luciano's gaff. (He's the student of late Auke Van Dokkum)

I will have more name for you, at the mean time, keen to heard what other people say.

I can also recommend Thierry from France. I ordered some sun/moon sets from him, the quality was really perfect. Also he has some very nice (and unusual!) coins, check out his website: https://magikoins.com/en/blog-2-2-2/