You have a coin back thumb palmed and you have you hand out showing it empty, then you quickly move you hand back slightly releasing the thumb grip and allowing the coin to land in your fingers. Is there a term for that move?

I think it is on one of David Stones videos or his notes. Dan Watkins does this sleight perfectly, I bet he knows the name of it. You might consider PM ing him to ask.

It's called “The Stone Drop”. David Stone describes this technique in a set of lecture notes entitled Cocoon. The technique was not named, however Marc DeSouza and Bob Elliot after seeing it, dubbed it “The Stone Drop”, which is the name David Stone now calls it.

Thanks Dan! Yes Reed, in Dan's Coin Vanish Trio he does it perfectly! Its funny, I swore for the longest time that Dan had produced that from a back-palm or Tenki (sp?) pinch position, though for the life of me I could not see how in the world he did it so unbelievably fast... lol at one point I was wondering if he had string tied to a coin and it reeled up to pull the coin into his hand.

Then one day I was trying to back thumb and in the process of dropping the coin (one of my most common slieghts) I jerked my hand to catch it and the light bulb went off in my head.

Dan I can only guess that doing it as smooth as you took *tons* of practice. My efforts thus far would only work in 'Coins to Floor','Coins across Room','Coins hitting Spectator' type routines.

Oh Reed, went to your site but couldn't find any videos of your work. I'd love to see these monster assemblies that you do.

You might try it this way: With the coin secretly concealed in back thumb "palm" (that's the hard part) and the spectators looking at your empty hand, simply drop the hand about 2", and then stop. Momentum will drive the coin out onto your fingers, and you don't move a muscle.

This looks great when coupled with patter about tossing and catching an invisible coin. Just drop your hand as if catching the coin, and the move works itself.

Or is this the Stone Drop? I've never seen it. You mentioned a backwards movement initially, so I assume the approaches are different.

Curtis, ChessMess had the technique described improperly as he was guessing at it. The Stone Drop is exactly as you describe it, the hand moves down in a catching motion with no hand movement. If you watch my Coinvanish Trio video on my website, I use the drop to make a coin jump from one hand to another invisibly.

I love that video! I know that hearing the patter is good when coming up with your own routines, but watching you do your work to that great tune is what coin magic is all about!

The technique the "Stone Drop" is on the Stone tapes, but --as Dan pointed out-- did not have a name. I have been using the move for the second coin in a coins across routine, and it gets a strong reaction.

Dan and Curtis have both stressed the key --that a "catching" motion of the palm motivates the sleight.

Is there an easier way to get the coin into back thumb palm? Bobo has me using the first to fingers to place it there and then using the thumb.

I ask this because Bobo's technique of a front thumb palm is harder than what I saw on Roth's video (vol 1) where you simply slide the coin down the thumb and clip it with the thumb. So I thought there may be an easier method for the back thumb palm as well.