CATCHING COINS

By Richard Robinson

The premise of the magician grasping invisible objects from the air around him, rendering them visible to those watching in the process is performed with various small objects: playing cards, billiard balls, thimbles, and coins. While magicians don't usually convey the scenario of a miser dreaming he can pluck silver and gold from the air, the appearance of coins at the finger tips is labeled The Miser's Dream.

The coins can be secreted prior to their appearance using gimmick coin holders, gaffed coins, and sleight of hand. While sleight of hand is ultimately the simplest and most effect method of accomplishing the effect, various coin catching gimmicks have been invented for those unwilling to devote the effort in learning the sleights.

Among the gimmicks is the Kellar coin catcher. Kellar's coin catcher holds more coins than necessary for a gimmick based production. The experienced magician knows that using a gimmick to create the same effect repeatedly will eventually give the game away. In the case of the Kellar gimmick the fingers of the hand are wrapped around the gimmick suggesting something is hidden the magician's hand especially since the hand position does not vary through out use.

There are other gimmicks which have less popularity or are less well known. One of them is the gimmick pictured below. It works in the same manner as the Kellar coin catcher, but has surprising advantages.

I have no idea where this gimmick came from, or when it was manufactured. I presume it dates from the first quarter of the 20th Century. It just appeared, as gimmicks do, in my collection of oddities. I ignored it for several years, then decided to try it out. The result was surprising.

The gimmick is 1-1/4 inches / 3.2 cm in diameter and 9/16 of an inch / 1.5 cm tall. It is open at one end, closed at the other. The top, open end has a half circle lip 5/32 of an inch / 4 mm wide fixed to it. Inside the container is a spring with a metal disc fixed to it.

The gimmick takes a U.S. half dollar, which 1-3/16 inches in diameter / 3 cm in diameter. Five half dollars can be loaded in it.

I presume that the holes drilled in the wall and bottom are to reduce its weight.

A curved clip is soldered to the outside of the gimmick at the side bottom edge. The arms of the clip turned so a finger tip can be inserted. In handling the gimmick it seems obvious that the second finger goes into the clip, leaving the first finger and thumb to manage the release of the coin from the gimmick and its appearance held by the thumb and first finger tip at the bottom coin edge.

The charm of this gimmick is that it can be clipped to the second finger and positioned so the fingers are spread wide apart only very slightly curled in. The hand appears empty.

In working with the gimmick I eventually moved the clip position so it encircled the second finger between the first and second joints of the finger.

With the gimmick securely clipped, the tilting of the hand itself lets the performer adjust the angle so the gimmick is not seen from the front. The result is the ability to pluck five coins from the air with the hand opened out. The illusion compared to other Miser's Dream moves is surprising.