I was under the opion that they all did

Who makes a quality nickels to dimes.

I know you already solved your problem, but wanted to reveal why this can happen:

If you insert the shell without a nickle on top, there is no "weight" to it and it becomes difficult to bang out, although you can do so with just the bang ring by using extra force and a very hard surface.

Otherwise, the shell is inserted upside down and you can see shiny side facing out (instead of the brass inside). The cup method mentioned before works, but I find an easier method is to stack two bang rings on top of each other - then you can bang it out with a little extra force as above.

-JoeJoe

It is a nice trick and I am told it was developed by Walter Gibson, who is one of my favorite magic writers.

Wife and I have been together 8+ years and the first trick I showed her was nickels to dimes. I used a TT(loaded with my nickels) and borrowed her nickels placing them inside a small cloth bag. Pretending to forget to have her write down the dates of each nickel, I poured the nickels from the bag (TT) and she wrote down the dates of each nickel. When I turned the nickels into dimes, of course each dime carried the same date as her nickels. To this day she BEGS for me to tell her how I did it and I love hearing her tell the story to her friends!

I'm asking that question too!

I recently decided to buy the effect again remembering how much fun it was in my early teens. The set I got is very tight. It takes considerable pressure to make the cap flush with the shell and even then a little bit of the shell is still exposed most of the time.

Any advice on how to loosen the fit a bit? Any lubricants ? Though I doubt that is the way to go.

TIA
Phil

A simple but effective lubricant is graphite. Use a pencil to color inside the lid.

Thanks Wravyn,

That is helping! Still a little taught. I'll keep coloring!

Phil