I met an old man that was a neighbor friend of my Uncle's parents. I was there to help my Uncle move his parents out of there home. Well he heard I like magic tricks and he said he knew a very good one.

So he went back to his house and he soon came back holding a dime. I don't remember if I marked the dime or if I noted the date, but he simply placed the coin into his pocket, I guess he didn't know how to make a coin disappear using sleight of hand. He pulled out a box with rubber bands wrapped tightly around it.

I could hear a coin rattling inside the box. I unwrapped the rubber bands and opened the box, then I saw another box nested inside this one also wrapped with bands, I was in shock, there is no way the coin could have made is way into two boxes liek that in so little time. After unwrapping like five boxes I found the dime safe and secure inside, I was perplexed!!

He was nice to give me the secret, and later I improved the trick by adding a small cloth bag I made myself. When I would do this trick for people I would execute a french drop reach into my pocket and pull out my boxes with the cloth bags. It simply amazes the %$#%$#% out of people, it is so powerful!

Later I found a less that impressive version using round brass containers. I bought it thinking that it might be stronger than using boxes and rubber bands, but I don't get the reactions I do with the boxes because it doesn't have that organic feel like the other version. That little cloth bag is what really drives the effect home. Best trick I have ever learned, and requires simple sleight of hand and a gimmick I made using a coke can and tin snips.

Hmmm. If you liked that, try making a ball of wool around the end of your 'gimmick'. Same principle, better revelation! (Much longer reset though!!!)

nah! The cloth bag with the rubber band tie is all you need.

There is a similar version of this effect in
Magic By Misdirection by Fitskee which I like.

A ball of yarn is found inside a bag which was in a box, which was in a box, which was.....

The ball of yarn is inspected and dropped back in the empty bag by the spectator, the yarn is pulled out of the bag (and i have the spectator re-roll one end while they unroll the other) and when the yean is all done un-rolling the spectator shakes the bag and much to their surprise, there's now something in the bag!!!

I use a heavy yarn that is much thicker. This way you get a big ball of yarn without much length.


frank

Hmm, sounds nice. But the best ever??? Hmmm, I'm not sure if I agree.

I still think that effects with the TT is the best ones you can do when performing close-up.

It may not be the best close-up trick ever, but it surely is STRONG to laymen.

sounds like a really impressive trick, but i agree it isn't the best. there's always something better.

Try adding a rattle box to it. That way, they hear the coin before it disappears and they are holding the box before you make the coin disappear and as such makes it appear even more impossible to them.

PSIncerely Yours,
Paul Alberstat

I think when laymen see the brass containers, they think gimmick right away, even if they can examine them, but a matchbox wrapped in rubberbands, and inside, a cloth bag containing their coin, everyday items, make the whole trick impossible.

Frank,
I do the same effect with the ball of yarn, but I use a GIGANTIC brandy snifter I found at Hobby Lobby. It is about 14" tall. When the coin finally pops out, it makes a nice clink in the glass, especilally if you hold the microphone next to the glass.
Bob

bob, I never touch the ball of yarn. i hold the bag it was found in and the spectator drops it inside themselves after which i close the mouth of the bag tight as they unwind.

would the brandy snifter still work? i like the idea but i cannot see that working for me?

When I was eight years old and got a magic set from the Sears Christmas catalog it contained a version of this trick: it had a gold cardboard box inside of which was a matchbox inside of which was a small cloth bag, all sealed with rubberbands.

I believe that one of Joseph Leeming's books ("Fun with Magic", "More Fun with Magic") describes it as well.

In John Bannon's "Smoke and Mirrors" he has a similar ending to a one-coin routine ("One is the Onliest") where the signed half-dollar is found inside an aspirin container, inside a folded envelope, inside a shoe polish tin, inside a cloth bag, that has been sitting in plain sight since the start of the routine. I have used this ending for one-coin routines with great effect.

I used to do the Coin in the Ball of wool, platform and close-up. A fellow named Vic Kirk taught it to me and the staging is beautiful.

You borrow a coin, have it marked and dropped into a champagne glass. Then you introduce one of those large brandy snifters, place in the spectators' lap.

Next, you remove a ball of wool from a small cloth bag and drop it into the snifter in the spectators' lap.

Returning to the champagne glass, you pour the coin out of it into a piece of paper you have shown and folded in half. You finish folding the paper around the coin, ignite it and it bursts into flame and vanishes, along with the coin inside. You ask the spectator to remove the end of the ball of wool and hand it to you. You begin to pull the wool out, gathering it in your hands as the ball unwinds in the glass, getting smaller and smaller, until you reach the end, at which point a little silver box is uncovered, having been wrapped within the ball of wool. The spectator reaches into the snifter and removes the box, opens it and finds another box, this one locked. You produce a key and hand it to the spectator, who unlocks the inner box and finds inside - you guessed it - his signed coin!

This is so incredible, that I have had trouble with the trick. It suffers from what I sometimes hear referred to as the "too perfect" theory. Peoples' response is that even though they know that that is thier coin, thier mark, it must be another coin! No way could that really be thier coin! I actually stopped doing this trick for a while because of that response. Now, I do it regardless, just because I think it is so beautiful!

The vanish is delicate, there is obviously no switch, no steal, no load - everything you do (the dirty work) is at the wrong time for the spectator, and in fact I was badly fooled the first time I saw it. The unwinding of the ball in the clear glass snifter "packs small, plays big", all in all it is about the best "coin to somewhere impossible" I have ever seen. Many thanks to Vic Kirk for teaching me this - I'm sure he wouldn't mind me sharing it here...

Best, PSC

OK. I get it. I like this very much. Actually I believe I can figure out the method and I think I will start doing it that way instead.

Both methods have their benefits and if you were doing a repeat show, it might be nice to go back and forth with the method/routine to keep those seeing multiple shows from figuring it out.


The only drawback to using a coin for a stage , in my humble, untested, opinion, is that it is small and hard to see.

Any thoughts on that?


Frank

I used to demonstrate the S.S.Adams Magic Coin Box when I worked at a magic shop in Gainesville, FL. Working behind a counter made the management of the trick even easier. We actually had 2 set up behind the counter at all times. Easily had the most bang for the buck of any trick we sold (with the possible exception of the Invisible Deck, which I didn't usually demo because it was "too good").

Paul

pchosse's presentation is very similar to one in Bobo, in the section on coin magic for stage.

While Frank is correct that a coin is hard to see on stage, it can be heard very well, and the reaction of the participants on stage (well-chosen for their boisterousness, right?) should make it play very well. If you can afford it, use a crystal glass and a crystal snifter along with a silver coin to enhance the sound.

Yes, the glass (or crystal) makes it!

Picturing a plastic wine glass just doesn't cut it.

I also like the idea of having perhaps a seconds microphone sitting beside the snifter for that one.

I like to have the spectator assemble the box themselves before performing the effect, the impact that this has is much much better than the old "classic" routine that I performed for many years. The new versions have a Vinyl bag instead of a cloth bag. My advice is to trash the plastic bag and find or make a cloth bag. Also, the Adam's version has a picture of a rabbit on the outer box, throw that away and use a box that looks more "normal". I don't know if this is the best closeup effect but I do know that it is very powerful and is a reputation maker.
Iven

So, as common with a magic act, a huge Crystal/glass snifter is wonderful except for getting it to/from the show in one piece. There's always that trade-off, of convenience vs. showmanship.

I'm trying to reduce what I take to a show, not increase.

Copperfield has a bunch of 18-wheeler's I'm told.

I don't want to go down that path....

Anyone else have concerns or thoughts on luggage vs. showmanship and where to draw the line.

I've heard some people say.... "I only make one trip to my car"

Just looking for feedback. I'll re-check this post after I go shopping for me huge snifter that Bill is making me buy now.

Frank

It is in fact a mind blowing trick. At one time it was found in every kids magic set so it fell out of favor but I will still use it. Mine cost seventy five cents.

I also use the "Verigated" wool so it takes much less to make a large ball. I use the brandy snifter principal except mine is a large plastic punchbowl form one of the party stores.

I also use the old sewn handkerchief gambit for vanishing the dime. This way I can involve four (yes four) people making it quite a production for stage.

Briefly I ask for a dime from a member of audience, one is volunteered and I have someone else, preferably a lady retrieve it. Before she goes to get it I give her a ten penny nail and ask her to give it to the person to mark the dime in some way as to identify it later.

She brings the dime up, I place it under the hank and she holds it through the cloth.

Only now do I bring out the bowl with the ball of yarn in it. I have two gentlemen come up to help. One holds the bowl.

I say in a second something very strange is about to happen, when it does I want you sir to start unraveling the yarn and you sir make sure it stays in the bowl in full view.

Now I snap the hank out of her hands and the coin is gone. She steps to the side and I stay as far from the bowl as possible while they wildly unravel it.

When it gets to the match box with the rubber bands I have one of the guys state what he is doing, then the bag comes out rubber banded and again they say what they have found and are doing, when the dime is pulled out people are watching me like a hawk (when is he going to switch it?)

You can guess the ending. I have the original woman take the coin, hold it over her head, and return it to the person who donated the coin. He verifies the mark and there is thunderous applause.

When I think of the years of practice, all the sleight-of-hand I have learned, etc. That little 75 cent trick gets a heck of a bang for the buck.

Frank