Hey folks,

I need your help in deciding on which coin magic book I should get for now, Rubinstein Coin Magic or Giacomo Bertini System of Amazement? I consider myself an intermediate coin guy. Years ago when I first got started with sleight of hand, coins is what I gravitated towards. I studied Bobo's and Expert Coin Magic and always walked around with coins in hand. I'd like to rekindle that passion as well further my coin skills and was looking into both of these books. Both books seem fantastic and chock full of great coin magic but, since I want to limit myself to just one book for now, I wanted to hear from those of you who actually own BOTH books. Many thanks!



Roberto

I would say Rubinstein. Though I don't have the book yet, I am familiar with his work via the old videos and some lecture notes and the At the Table lecture.

Superb coin magic. I think he could beat David Roth in a coin challenge, which I would like to see. Nothing against Roth. Go with Rubinstein.

I own both, but if I had to make the hard decision, I'd go with Dr. Michael Rubinstein's book.

Why? It's bigger, has a wider variety of material, and just appeals to my sense of magic better.
(and I love puns)


Dave

Hi Dave,

Thanks for your feedback! Based on your feedback and those from the Genii forum, it seems the Rubinstein Coin magic book is the way to go. Thanks again!



Roberto

Glad to hear you were steered in what I would consider the "right direction" between the two. I really like the new Dr. Michael Rubinstein Coin Book. It is full of great coin magic that is well within my (what I consider intermediate grasp). The Latta book was a little more difficult for me but I can grasp at least 80% of it. Unfortunately, I feel the Giacomo book would be more out of my grasp, possibly even a niche coin book as his style is very different than what I can do (basing it on his coin dvd [actually CDRom] some time back). It was like Ponta's "Sick" DVD to me. Very fun to watch but nearly impossible to emulate. You will not go wrong with Mike's book. I actually believe in time, it will replace Bobo's "Modern Coin Magic" as the "Go-To" recommended to beginners to intermediates. There is a fantastic mix of sleights, effects and a memorable chapter on puns.

I've got Giacomo´s book...not my kind of magic at all.

He has take classic plots and fits them to his baroque style and handlings, with is valuable, but for me and just for me isn't add necessary improvements to those routines

Maybe out there some guys will found this kind of work more suitable for them, after all, on magic we have a lot of approaches!!

Rubinstein Coin Magic! Without a doubt! Anything Rubinstein! You can't lose!

Doug

I’ll hop in to give my quick 2 cents as well! I am currently working through the Rubinstein book now and have loved every moment of it. It has so much information on different (and very practical) moves with applications and routines in the book as well. If you check some of the other threads about this book you would be able to find when Mr. Rubinstein posted the table of contents so that you can get an idea of exactly what all is included in this massive book on coin magic. Honestly, I believe this will be one of the best books for years to come on the subject.

Now, concerning the book System for Amazement by Giacomo Bertini. This book focuses on a specific palm and gives you an incredible amount of work on it. Honestly I felt this book was very easy to get into and a lot of the sleights in the book came fairly natural to me. The writing is very clear and I believe I learned more about this specific aspect of coin magic from this book than any other source.

If you are only going for one book now and want to broaden your coin magic in general I would suggest the Rubinstein Coin Magic book, but if you would like to hone your studies on a more specific aspect of coin magic then go for Bertini’s System for Amazement. I think you will definitely learn a ton from both and won’t be disappointed either way you go.

It would be bias for me to comment, but since you mentioned the Table of Contents, I'll just leave this here:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD by Bill Wells
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE – SLEIGHTS, MOVES, AND TECHNIQUES
CHAPTER ONE - R.O.P.S. TECHNIQUE
1. R.O.P.S. Move
2. R.O.P.S. New Theory Retention Pass
3. R.O.P.S. Click Pass
4. R.O.P.S. Double Click Pass
CHAPTER TWO - VANISHES, SHUTTLE PASSES, LOADS, AND CHANGEOVER PALMS
1. Variation Retention Pass
2. The Bronx Take
3. Miracle One Hand Coin Vanish
4. Roll-Down Retention Pass
5. Fingertip Shuttle Pass
6. Fingertip Shuttle-Pass Display
7. Palm-Down Fingertip Shuttle Pass
8. Fingertip Load
9. Tap Load
10. Spellbound Changeover Palm
11. Spellbound Changeover-Palm Variation and Display
12. Nowhere Palm Changeover Palm
13. Rubinstein Put-back Move
CHAPTER THREE - CLICK PASSES
Introduction
1. Rubinstein Click Pass
2. Air Drop Click Pass
3. Turnover Double Click Pass
4. Snap Down Double Click Pass
5.Nowhere Palm Click Pass
6. Nowhere Palm Double Click Pass
7. Fan Double Click Pass
8. Reverse Double Click Pass
CHAPTER FOUR – SPELLBOUND MOVES
1. Impromptu Touch Change
2. The Wave Change
3. The Rubinstein Steal Back
4. Flip-Over Change
5. The Soft change
6. The Strike Change
7. The Rub Change
8. Spellbound 9333
9. The Blow Change
10. The Cartwheel Change
11. Spellbound Times Three
12. Triple E.G. Spell
CHAPTER FIVE - FALSE COUNTS AND USEFUL MOVES
1. The PH (Pseudo Himber) Count
2. The Fidget Count
3. The R.O.P.S Discrepancy Count
4. The Combination Count
5. The Click Steal Back
6. The Clip Steal Back
7. Purse-Palm Subtlety
8. Fingertip Utility Switch
9. Angle-Finger Palm Switch
10. Multi-Coin Angle-Palm Switch
11. The Slide Move
12. Crossed Arms Subtlety
13. The Rubinstein Subtlety
CHAPTER SIX - STEALTH PALM
CHAPTER SEVEN – ADDITIONAL TECHNIQUES
1. Matting
2. Pocket Management
PART TWO – ROUTINES
CHAPTER EIGHT – COPPER-SILVER
1. The Purse and Glass
2. Magical Change Purse (Purse, No Glass)
3.  The Substitution Trunk Mystery
4. Stand Up Sucker Copper-Silver Routine
5. Copper or Silver Extraction
6. Copper Penetration
7. Handy Copper-Silver Transposition
8. Cup of Copper Silver
9. Stealth Copper-Silver Transposition
10. Ungimmicked Copper-Silver-Brass
11. Oil and Water
12. Matchbox Treasury Redux
CHAPTER NINE – WILD COIN
1. Twilight Zone Wild Coin Introduction
2. Twilight Zone Wild Coin Show Version
3. Twilight Zone Wild Coin Impromptu Version
4. Twilight Zone Wild Coin Cup Version
5. Twilight Zone Wild Coin Purse Version
6. Twilight Zone Wild Coin Original Handling
7. Twilight Zone Wild Coin Multi Gold Version
8. Sliding Wild Coin
CHAPTER TEN – SPELLBOUND ROUTINES
1. Thoughts on Spellbound
2. Ultimate Silver Lint
3. The Chocolate Coin
4. Imagine a Coin
5. Four-Way Spellbound
6. Shattered Spellbound
7. Chinese Explosion
CHAPTER ELEVEN - COINS THROUGH THE TABLE
1. Rubinstein Coins Through the Table
2. Standup Coins Through the Table
3. CSB Coins Through the Table
4. Giant Four Coins through the Table
CHAPTER TWELVE - COINS ACROSS
1. Tallahassee Jumping Coins
2. Impossible Four Coin Trick I
3. Impossible Four Coin Trick 2
4. Long Term Short Term
5. Retro Fly
6. The Specciolini Brothers
7. Shell CSB Coins Across
CHAPTER THIRTEEN - COIN PRODUCTIONS AND VANISHES
1.Triple Play
2. Magical Money Rap
3. The Wishing Well
4. Vegas Math
5. Fuzzy Math
6. Bologna Debut
7. Stealth Hanging Coins
8. Stealth Showcase
9. Deja vu Coin Vanish
10. Tri-Coin
11. Flash Vanish
CHAPTER FOURTEEN - COINS AND CARDS
1. Voodoo Revelation
2. Voodoo Revelation SOH Version
3. Two Coin Monte (Two Card Reverse Matrix)
4. Quadra Coin Reverse Matrix
5. Ultra Reverse Matrix
6. The Mentalist
7. Triple Coin to Card
8. Case Solved
CHAPTER FIFTEEN - GAFFED COINS
1. Silver Extraction
2. The Double-Faced Coin Routine
3. The Bent Coin Routine
4. Magnetic Coins
5. Thumb Through Coin
6. Signed Bill Through Coin
7. Smileys
8. Smileys Jr.
9. Fusion
10. Three Quarters of a Trick
11. Key Fobulous
12. Goodbye, Hello, Now Change
CHAPTER SIXTEEN - MISCELLANEOUS
1. The Purse Routine
2. The Blank Coin Routine
3. The Mystery of the Chinese Coin
4. The Black Hole
5. Mint Condition
6. Next of Boxes
7. Coin in Coin Roll
8. Coins to Glass
9. Polarized Plastic
10. Time for Change
11. The Counterfeit Coin
12. Nest of Envelopes
13. Nest of Envelopes Method Two
14. The Sympathy Card
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – COINS AND POKER CHIPS
1. May the Force Be with You
2. Poker Chip Spellbound
3. 3-D Printing
4. My Coin Collection
5. Conviction Prediction
6. Conviction Prediction, and Some Magishin’
7. The Famous Three Coin Trick
8. Three Coin Monte
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – FRIENDS SECTION
1. Introduction
2. Mike Gallo – I Got It Covered
3. Nathan Kranzo – Shuzbut Coins
4. Jean Emmanuel Franzis – Aegean Coins
5. Moritz Mueller – Slide of Hand Vanish
6. Bill Citino – Coins Walking Wildly Ahead
7. Tom Gagnon – Shell-Acted
8. Marc DeSouza – Cylinder and Coins for Three Friends
9. Eric Roumestan – Touch, No Touch
10. Brenden Wolf – Differential
11. Lawrens Godon – Three-ality Routine
12. Tri Ryuzaki – Synchronized Spellbound
13. Giacomo Bertini – Coinmeleon II
14. Etienne Lorenceau – Faustus Chameleon Skin Purse
15. Danny Goldsmith – The Frenetic Change
16. Leonard Rangel – Three Flight
17. Doug Brewer – Left-Handed Coins in a Box
18. John Carey – Simplex Positive Negative
19. Miguel Angel Gea – Coin Munch
20. Bill Wisch – The Elbow Servante
21. Jay Wang – Purse-onal Coin Production
22. Karen Dorangrichia – WOW Magic Chicken
23. David Roth - The Roth Blank Coin Routine
PART THREE – BONUS SECTION
CHAPTER NINETEEN - PUNS FOR ANY OCCASION
1. Introduction
2. Medical
3. Professional
4. Animals
5. Sports
6. Home
7. Car and Travel
8. Food
9. Personal
9. Bars and Drinks
10. Miscellaneous
CHAPTER TWENTY – CURTAIN CALL
1. Chinese Explosion II
2. Quarter Steal
3. Baseball Miser’s Dream
FINAL THOUGHTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

For anyone who is curious, Rick Holcombe posted a video on his YouTube channel reviewing Mr. Bertini's book. It gives some good insight. Mr. Bertini also has some videos on YouTube that you can watch to get an idea of his style.

I don't have System of Amazement, but it's on my list for a future purchase when I've gotten through some of the stuff I've already got (such as Dr. Rubinstein's great book ).

There is also a video review of Rubinstein Coin Magic on Rick's YouTube channel. Here it is:
https://youtu.be/iaJtTmcKI54