I purchased my brother-in-laws coin collection a few months ago. The collection included a 1950 dime on a wheat penny. The edge is half reeded like a dime and half smooth like a cent. The wheat reverse is off-set by about 90 degrees. I assumed that the coin was a fake made by someone with too much time on their hands. Please take a look at the photo and give me your thoughts.
I gave him a buck for it based on the silver value of half a silver rosie. What does a magician do with it?
Yup. Tricks that involve supposedly changing a dime to a cent, or vice versa. Examine the "third side" closely. There are two basic methods for creating magician's coins. One is to machine out one side of one of the coins, leaving only a thin rim, and inserting the other coin in that space after machining it to half-thickness. Those coins "clank" instead of "ring" when dropped on a hard surface, and have the original edge of the "host", with a faintly discernible line just inside the edge on one side. The other method involves machining both coins to half-thickness and then gluing them together. The edge has a faintly discernible line in the middle. From your description of a half-smooth, half-reeded edge, I'm ready to wager that this is the type of coin you have. Those coins may "clank" or "ring", depending on the specific coin combination. In your case I would expect a "clank".
I believe the most common trick is probably something like hiding a cent under a cup, saying hocus pocus, and turning it into a dime. I could be wrong though.
It seems quite lame after watching some of Chris Angel's stuff. I wonder if he is really doing the tricks or it is just Hollywood mumbo jumbo.
Some of the crap on his show is likely staged. But I imagine his stage shows are probably legitimate illusions. There really isn't anything worth faking, I'd say, as the tricks are impressive enough. However, I've never seen Chris Angel perform. I did see David Copperfield a few years ago, and it was a neat show.
David Copperfield is a great magician and seems to put on a good show. I need to add "watching him perform" to my bucket list.
