Strange Coin Production

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Bill Mullins
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Strange Coin Production

Postby Bill Mullins » March 31st, 2015, 10:04 pm

There is an unusual coin production from something like back palm that I'm looking for the origin of and references about.

The hand is typically held out horizontally from the body, with palm facing the audience. The coin is held hidden behind the 1st, 3rd and 4th fingers, and pinched to the backs of those fingers by the 2nd finger. Your thumb covers the gap left by the 2nd finger, and since the coin can be seen through that gap, it is hidden as well. The hand ends up a little cramped-looking, and there is a discrepancy in that only 4 fingertips are visible.

The hand is held still, and the coin is pushed out past the ends of the fingertips by the tip of the 2nd finger. You get a very smooth, slow production of the coin with no apparent movement on the part of the magician.

The move is a little awkward to get into, and as such I've never seen it used for anything other than the magician's own amusement -- it has a look to it that is unusual and mysterious. I've never seen it used in an actual trick.

The production is demonstrated in Curtis Kam's Penguin Live lecture between 2:01:00 and 2:02:00. He calls it the "S C Manipulation". I contacted him and he said that either he or Kainoa Harbottle ran it down once and he's forgotten the details, but he thinks it was from Stanley Collins.

I don't see it anywhere in "Conjuring Melange" or in the Collins section of Bobo. Does anyone here know a reference to it? Or a use?

Jonathan Townsend
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Re: Strange Coin Production

Postby Jonathan Townsend » March 31st, 2015, 10:22 pm

Lou Lancaster used to use this item. It might be his.
Mundus vult decipi -per Caleb Carr's story Killing Time

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Strange Coin Production

Postby Richard Kaufman » March 31st, 2015, 10:26 pm

I've seen many people do this, and would assume that it predates Lou Lancaster. It might be Collins', and might be in a magazine. I believe I've seen an older looking illustration, perhaps from Downs, that shows the move. Could be in Stanyon's Magic magazine, or the Magic Wand, or 50 other places.
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Denis Behr
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Re: Strange Coin Production

Postby Denis Behr » April 1st, 2015, 2:34 am

It's credited to Lancaster on McBrides "World Class Manipulation 3" and called "Eclipse Production". Davide Costi published it again as "Birth of a Coin" here: http://www.conjuringarchive.com/show.ph ... ight=26342

Costi writes: "I showed the coin production to several magicians and, believe me,each one of them asked me to explain it. I would like to give thecredit for the original idea but I just cannot remember anybodyshowing it to me, I think it is just one of those things that you comeup with without really looking for it. I remember showing it back in1986 to Jeff McBride at the Stresa convention.
It is published here for the first time, as far as I am aware."

Despite this claim it's probably published earlier than both those references, but I never looked into it.

Philippe Billot
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Re: Strange Coin Production

Postby Philippe Billot » April 1st, 2015, 3:18 am

A little variant was explained by Bob Friedhoffer in Apocalypse, Vol. 11, no. 5 de mai 1988, page 1497 under the name Eerie Thing and his source is also Lou Lancaster.

Bill Mullins
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Re: Strange Coin Production

Postby Bill Mullins » April 1st, 2015, 9:05 am

It turns out we've been down this road before. Lots of people give credit to Lancaster.

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Richard Kaufman
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Re: Strange Coin Production

Postby Richard Kaufman » April 1st, 2015, 3:29 pm

I would be surprised if no one preceded Lou Lancaster with this production of a coin. There are so many thousands of items buried in magazines from different countries going all the way back to the 1880s--and this seems to me like a stage item devised 100 years ago.
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