Hey,
I saw a magician once take four quarters and place them in a square formation about 2 feet away from each other. Then he one by one made them appear in one corner. What is this called?... I've tried my own methods to this but nothing is working out. (Help?)

Sounds like a Matrix effect to me. Does it use 4 cards to cover each coin?

On Ammar's second volume of money magic he presents "shadow coins". This is a wonderful matrix type trick but he only covers the coins with his hands. After moving around for awhile the four coins end in one corner.

Ari-

It's called a Coin assembly effect, and there are tons of versions in print.

If the coins are covered with cards, it's a Matrix effect. If not, it's an assembly. All Matrix routines are assemblies, but not all assemblies are Matrix effects.

Often, the coins will then return to their starting positions--a "reverse."

Well, is the matix the ones with the cards and one has a magnet?... well anyway the guy used his hands.... so whats that?

It's a coin assembly. It can be done with or without gimmicks. There's no way to know exactly which routine unless I actually see it. If it was done on the floor, odds are good that it was Shadow Coins, Michael Ammar's variation of a David Roth routine. It can be found on Ammar's "Easy to Master Coin Miracles" series. The original Roth routine can be found in the book, "Expert Coin Magic," published by Kaufman.

Incidentally, though a gaffed card CAN be used in the Matrix effect, most use regular cards and regular coins.

Woops, sorry, I should be careful with my words , huh?...well thanks!... I'll look around!

Most shocking coin assembly I've seen is from a Dean Dill video ("Intimate Miracles"?).

It blew me away so badly, I had to see it several times BEFORE watching the explanation because I was so totally FRIED by what I had seen.

It was so much fun to experience the magic of that moment that I almost hated to learn the secret! I felt like a complete newbie all over again.

Are you sure it's a video?... All I can find are his books.

His book is called "Intimate Miracles", the video Geoff was referring to is called "Intimate Coin Miracles". Dean also has a video called "Coinmagic 2000". The great majority of Dean's work is Matrix and Coin Assemblies.

You can find his stuff at his webpage http://www.deandill.com

Thanks, Dan. I didn't have the video "Intimate Coin Miracles" at my fingertips and I had forgotten the exact title.

I don't have any of Dean's books but I'm interested in adding them to my library. Dean's a solid thinker.

And "Intimate Miracles" does come with a video of the same name. But you're right--many of Dean's ideas are pure genius!

Ari, a coin assembly that is done with just the hands is sometimes also called Chink-A-Chink. Johnny Thompson is a master of this, with sugar cubes, bottle caps, you name it.

With cards, an assembly (matrix) is usually done with ungaffed cards or coins.

The pickup is done usually using the Al Schneider/Derek Dingle Pickup Move.

Gimmicked coins are also available, the most notable being E Pluribus Unum, which is most often used in a reverse matrix, a routine that was mentioned by Scott, above.

Personally, while I don't do it any more, I always preferred ungimmicked everything -- coins and cards (although it has to be done on a soft surface).
BTW, the derivation is probably from Yank Hoe's Sympathetic Coins, in Bobo's book, Modern Coin Magic.
cheers,
Peter Marucci
showtimecol@aol.com

Johnny Thompson is a master of this, with
sugar cubes, bottle caps, you name it.


Once in a restaurant, I unscrewed the lids from some salt shakers and performed chink-a-chink on the floor like that.

(Please note that I was not strolling at the restaurant. It was a back room at a Shoney's with other magicians.)

JMT

I hope you didn't then place the tops back on the shakers...

Eeeesh! I'll never use salt at a restaurant again!

To be honest, it was probably the first time the lids had come off those shakers in quite some time... there was some gross stuff under there.

We tipped the waitress extra for the clean up -- there was a good deal of salt on the table from unscrewing the lids -- but whether the lids and shakers were washed before they were put back on? I have no idea...

I suspect your better restaurants change and clean the salt shakers on a more regular basis than this particular Shoney's location.

ok, that's it then. I'm bringing my own salt from now on. Or maybe I'll go on a low sodium diet...

Low sodium is probably a better solution than toting those little salt packets all over the place.

JMT

The Yank Hoe from Bobo's coin is also found in Mark Wilson's Complete Book of Magic as "Four Coins Assembly". An excellent routine is found in Rubinstein's video but is called the Reverse Matrix.