Origin of the Slot Coin Box?

[erdnasephile]

All:

With regards to the Slot Coin Box, I came across some advertising copy published in 1990 by David Roth that stated: the slot box "...is quite unique and has never been marketed before." (Italics in the original). It was good ad copy, since it caused me to fork over the C-Note for the set being advertised.

I was wondering: was David Roth the creator of the slot box? (I see them advertised all over now and was wondering what the correct origin of this box is.)

[Philippe Billot]

Here is a reference.

http://www.conjuringcredits.com/doku.ph ... t_coin_box

David applied the principle for an Okito box but it seems that George Blacke marketed a trick in 1949 entitled Super Pass Coins but I'm not sure 100%.

If you can contact a collector...

[Richard Kaufman]

It seems to me that Hiroshi Kondo invented the slot box for the super close up collection marketed by Tenyo in the mid-1980s

[Jim Riser]

I have no idea of who invented it (slot box) but when I was in the Army stationed at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, a magic fan at Bathesda National Naval Medical Center asked me to make him one from a slot box he had but had dropped and bent the rim. At the time I had never seen one and asked him where he found it. He said that a shipmate had machined it for him while at sea. That, of course, meant that his was made from "Naval Brass". He did not claim originality for the idea. I had access to metal working machines as I was working as a scientific glassblower in the instrumentation division. The one I made him was made from "Army Brass". This would have been back in 1970-71. We used to do some glass work for Bethesda and meeting some of the Navy guys was routine.
Jim

[erdnasephile]

Thanks, guys--that's really interesting--it's much older than I thought.

[Jonathan Townsend]

Was there a trick with a longer tube / "cup" that would hold back a coin if tipped to one side? This is going back a ways. ?? the tenyo flying coins?

[Bill Mullins]

Was there a trick with a longer tube / "cup" that would hold back a coin if tipped to one side?

I saw Al Cohen demo a trick like this once -- I think it was called Shamrock cup?

[Philippe Billot]

The Shamrock Cup appears in 1995.

The trick with the longer tube seems to come from Holland (as said in Conjuring Credits) and in France some magicians remember that this tube comes from Holland but don't remember the name of the trick nor the year.

[Curtis Kam]

To the reference in Conjuring Credits, I would add that in Wonderful Routines of Magic (1969) Ellison Poland is discussing the magnetic Okito box that he showed to a "well-travelled and knowledgeable" magician who he identifies only as his "informant". Poland then says, "My informant also described still another type of Okito box which, to the best of my knowledge, has not been marketed extensively or documented in the literature of magic." He then goes on to describe the slot box, in detail.


"all done by Coindness"

[Richard Kaufman]

Interesting. Kondo's was a case of independent reinvention, then.