Which sleight of hand is more difficult to learn, cards or coins? I'm not talking about getting to the point that I can impress amateur or professional practitioners. I just want to astonish my neighbors. I have been studying sleight of hand with cards for awhile and was wondering how difficult it would be to add a little coin work. I have Bobo's first book on Modern Coin Magic but due to serious time constraints I have not just sat down and tried it on for size. What say you?

Thanks

Just like with cards there are easy and difficult sleights. You can learn very good coin routines that are based on just one move (e.g. Vernon's Chinese Classic from book of magic). So learn a coin routine and see if you like it.

In addition...with the coin gaffs available i.e. bite out coin, coins across utilizing a shell,sun and moon, Scotch and Soda etc., you can perform some impressive effects with little to no difficult sleights.

Everyone is different, what is simple for some is difficult for others, so asking, which is more difficult, the answers will come from their own perspective of easy and difficult.
IMHO, a good starting book to learn some basic and workable coin magic is Harry Lorayne's The Magic Book. The books you have mentioned you have, are excellent, though they can be overwhelming when just starting to explore the genre. Harry's book may open the door to your coin magic travels.
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What davidpaul$ states about using magical coins is very true, yet, if you do not have those trick on person, "I just want to astonish my neighbors." in an impromptu moment, will not happen.

Learning and using some basic sleights (and routines which incorporate them) will allow you to decide if coin magic is more difficult for you.

Good things brought up here, and Wravyn you are so right about “learning some basic sleights” as to coins…you only need a few of them really.

Learning the basics, whether from Bobo’s or other good sources, is the way to go. It doesn’t take long, it takes diligence. If you want to progress in just about anything, you must give it the work, aka…good practice, and you sound like you know this well already. But that’s all it takes and you can begin to build. Bobo’s is a good source, but there are other good sources, like Eric Jones’ Metal series. The first one deals with the basics and some tricks, routines that use them. But if you are interested in more so adding to the card magic you do as to variety (great idea), then I would recommend something that most would not…The work of Benjamin Earl. Why? Well, he does sorta simple things but makes them look amazing. He is a tremendous thinker and his work reflects that as he also injects his brand of psychology into cards and coins. You might look around for his “Real Coin Magic,” as his Primal Movement and I think something he calls Pocket Time Machine are on there. Both wonderful coin tricks. These are not hard to do, uses one or two coins and more thinking & presentation than sleights really, though a little SOH is in there but believe me, you can probably already do it or will learn it from just his calm teaching of it.

I recommend this guy’s work because it is not overwhelming, but will fit the bill of what you want to do here. It is engaging stuff that puts you in full control of the moments and allows the specs to fully participate, be instantly amazed and enjoy.

As a decent-at-best coin guy, I can do a lot of stuff, but prefer the simpler…I guess because I better understand now that less is more, especially going around doing magic here & there for family and friends, though this stuff will work on anybody with guaranteed smiles every time out. Again, there’s a lot out there but this guy’s coin work (& cards), is perhaps off the beaten path a bit but still quite impressive IMHO.

So, familiarize yourself with the basics in Bobo’s since you got it already. And then give Ben Earl’s work a try. You’ll be glad you did.


Good journey to you.

….Oh, and as to the OP question here as to which is more difficult coin or cards…I’d say they both take a good amount of practice to better understand the movements and deceptions of the sleights. Good news is that both are attainable behind good practice. Most good closeup magicians are good enough at both. Some specialize in one or the other, but I always think that even if you do, you should still endeavor to become decent enough with the other one as I honestly think they go hand in hand with one another.

As I said just above, I am mostly a coin guy but do like card magic a bit, and as such learned a bit of it over the long Covid shutdowns. I’d played with it from a boy but never put good effort into it as I came to do with coins. Actually got a bit stuck with the easier packet tricks that sorta skip you by the SOH…Not good! So now, I can do quite a bit more with cards, a regular deck which helped teach me a lot of the sleights and moves to make things happen. I’m so glad I took the time as it is a part of me now and breaks up the monotony of just doing coin tricks. A little bit of this & that is always better appreciated by specs, and helps to keep you grounded as to variety. It’s why I suggested here to check out Benjamin Earl’s work, as he is both really good with coins and cards, though seemingly more of a card guy, which is where I first came across him. I wouldn’t say either genre is harder than the other really, but it certainly can feel that way when you give the other a try. Push through all that and you’ll be glad you did. It’s really a good feeling to be equally confident reaching for either a few coins or a deck of cards from your pockets or even right from the specs.