More Supple Hand Stuff

Relative sizes: American Silver Dollar; Canadian Silver Dollar, U.S. Half Dollar

Got a note from a correspondent, Jack, with some links to coin and ring tricks. I won't list them all, but this one is pretty impressive: De Ring, by De Vo.

My nephew, who was here visiting with his lovely wife the past few days, can do a pretty smooth rendition of the ring roll on the fingertips, aka, the Gryphon Roll. I can do it, but not fast nor smooth enough to show it off yet. When I get it, I'll post a vid here. A plain, smooth, man's wedding-band style ring is the easiest. Once you get it, you can do it with other rings.

For any kind of skilled sleights and manipulation, the important thing is, of course, practice.

For coins, the size of the coin needs to be a good match for your hand. Some tricks work better with different coins, so one size doesn't fit all.

When I started, I used a U.S. half-dollar -- but it was a tad too small for me to do a couple of the basic Downs' Palms, ala the Front and Back Palm, or the Thumb Palm.

An American silver dollar is too large for my hand to do those tricks, though it's nice and heavy for knuckle rolls.

What works best for me overall is a Canadian silver dollar. You can pick them up at a coin shop for a reasonable price, as long as you don't care about the condition or rare ones. They also work well for the poker-chip shuffle and stack, and knuckle and fingertip rolls. They are heavier than a U.S. half-dollar coin, so some of the tricks are going to be harder. (The muscle pass, which takes a lot of practice to learn, flies faster and farther with a small, lighter coin. This is a trick that, even if they know how it is done, still impresses people, because they can't do it even if you show them how.)

Close magic has always impressed me more than big tricks. Anybody can make an elephant vanish, if they have the gear. Making a coin or a card appear or disappear in front of somebody standing right there is much more amazing, if done well.

If you are going to play with money this way, you need to try different size coins, to see which works best for you.