Coin Magic Books
Although one-trick magic DVDs and YouTube videos are all the rage, I still enjoy building a library of magic books for both coin magic tricks and card magic. The secrets of magic have been passed down verbally, scrawled in notebooks, copied and bound in lecture notes and published again and again in books. Video is an excellent way to demonstrate and explain magic to the masses, but it doesn’t compare with the portability and flexibility of sitting down with a book and reading about the theory in addition to moves. Below are a list of my favorite Coin Magic Books.
Beginner Coin Magic Books
Coin Magic Book #1: Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic
Bobo's Coin Magic
Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic was the first coin magic book I bought from the Romig Magic shop in Ferndale, Michigan. Although Romig’s changed hands over the years and evolved into the Wunderground Magic Shop, I still have my copy from the store. It would take another 15 years later before I met one of Bobo’s prolific contributors – Milt Kort – at the Monday Night Mystics roundtable.
Bobo’s has 17 chapters filled with worthwhile coin magic and has a ton of great coin work. Experienced coin workers all agree its one of the foundational coin magic books.
Coin Magic Book #2: Klutz Book of Magic by Klutz
Klutz Book of Magic
The Klutz books include a line of entertaining and basic magic effects. The Klutz Book of Magic is one of my favorite beginner books due to the sneaky stuff they include with the book and it has several solid coin magic tricks. Their Heads of Tails trick is a fun one-coin trick that is impromptu and includes a vanish that makes sense. Plus it is well illustrated and easy to follow.
Coin Magic Book #3: Klutz Coin Magic by Klutz
Coin Magic
…and ofcourse there are the 24 recommended coin magic tricks by Klutz. The Klutz Coin Magic book is a simple and easy to follow set of coin magic tricks that have a unique twist on several classic coin magic tricks. There is a dissolving quarter using boxer shorts that is quite funny! The folks at Klutz make a lot of good introductory books on magic. Their magnetic magic book and juggling book are equally good value!
Coin Magic Book #4: Now You See It, Now You Don’t by Bill Tarr
Now You See It Now You Don't
The fundamentals of coin magic are in sleight of hand. Once of the best texts on sleight of hand magic is Bill Tarr’s Now You See It, Now You Don’t series. I own both of these books in addition to the Bill Tarr Notebook. Each book is full of step by step illustrations and easy to follow instructions. It is a great value for just under $15 bucks on Amazon. You won’t find a cheaper sleight of hand text on the market for the value. The second volume,The Second Now You See It, Now You Don't II
Coin Magic Book #5: Harry Lorayne’s The Magic Book
The Magic Book
Harry Lorayne’s The Magic Book is another great find for introductory magic in addition to coin magic. In this text, I learned a classic 1 to 10 coin trick as well as my first introduction to Han Ping Chien in his Coins Across routine. After 25+ years of pursuing magic, it amazes me how the material I first read as a kid still sticks.
Advanced Coin Magic Books
Coin Magic Book #6: Expert Coin Magic by David Roth
Expert Coin Magic by David Roth
Obviously you can’t pursue coin magic too much before seeing David Roth’s name. Expert Coin Magic is an excellent tome of magic focused entirely on coin magic tricks. Hanging Coins remains on of my favorite pieces from the text. It is considered to be the next “must have” coin magic book following Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic.
Coin Magic Book #7: Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman
Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman
Another recommended text about the world of coin magic.
Coin Magic Book #8: Totally Out of Control by Chris Kenner
Totally Out of Control - Chris Kenner
I recently pulled this book of my shelf and realized how impressive Out of Control is in the world of Coin Magic. I remember when I first bought the book, the material was beyond my skill set at the time and the book found its home in the library. I’d pull it off the shelf every now and then and read through it and then started working with the material again.
Menagie et Trois (Three Fly), Three Fry, Long Gone Silver and Hellbound Spellbound are awesome coin magic tricks to learn…and they are technically challenging. The book is a lot of fun to work with and chock full of great material.
Here is a recent coin magic video post featuring segments of Long Gone silver sans wand.
You can also pick up a copy of Totally Out of Control for about $45.00
Coin Magic Book #9 : Kort by Stephen Minch
The Magic of Milt Kort
The Kort book is by far one of my favorite magic books in addition to the variety of coin magic found in the text. Kort provides a revised handling of his classic Copper and Silver Transposition, includes Ron Bauer’s Okorto Coin Box presentation and features a lot of unique coin magic. Hidden in these pages is one particular gem of a trick using the thumb palm and a single coin with the L’homme Masque load. It is a nice quick trick that fits well with a series of coin effects.
I’m particularly fond of the book because I got to know Milt and Sandra through the Monday Night Mystics Roundtable in Lake Orion, MI. Milt would show up and always provide bits of advice. Kort’s Kave was his personal library and he’d spend hours researching an effect and gladly share the information. To hear him narrate his Umgawa – his Vanishing Elephant trick (which is also in the book) was always a classic.
Milt was a coin work is found throughout Bobo’s Coin Magic and The Magic of Milt Kort is a must-have book for any close-up performer.
Hi,
Thanks for the review of the Milt Kort Book, I have been searching the web for a review but they are few and far between. I would classify myself as an advanced beginner. I have the Kaufman books and also the Bobo book. Would you classify the tricks in the Milt Kort Book as advanced, also do they use gimmicks? I’m trying hard not to rely on gimmicks. Also are the card tricks good?
Hi Phil – Thanks for the comment!
The Kort book is comprised of Kort Kards, Kort Koins, and Kort Assorted effects.
I think you’ll find the material well within your reach and advanced enough to entertain and grow your coin and card magic.
My personal favorites from the book include:
1. Wanna Try – A demonstration of sleight of hand using a real razor blade.
I haven’t seen anything else like it gets a great reaction.
2. Kort’s Copper and Silver Transposition – Director’s Cut
3. The Okorto Coin Box – Ron Bauer’s performance script of the Okorto Coin Box
4. Umgawa – A close-up version of vanishing an elephant
5. The Invisible Toss – a quick coin vanish / reappearance that plays well and builds of the Copper Silver Transposition technique
There are a ton of other good “gems” including several effects with dice switches. His dice switch looks great. There are a variety of other close-up tricks that play well and are just fun to perform. Kort’s first principle in Magic was to Have Fun! (page 251 of the book) and the book delivers.
The only gimmicks I’ve seen in the book are a copper/silver coin and the rest is all sleight of hand work. I also like a number of Kort’s Kard effects including his Card to Shoe, several color changing card effects, and more advanced card magic.
Kort was a wealth of knowledge and always helped me when I had a question about a specific effect. Kort has a center deal that wasn’t included in the book but he taught it to a friend of mine – John Dowdy. I’ve seen bottom deals, seconds, etc but Kort’s handling of a center deal was simply impressive. I think you’ll be pleased.
Here is another video review from Vanishing Inc
http://www.vanishingincmagic.com/magic/card-magic/kort/
What kind of coin work do you perform?
Drew
Hi Drew,
Thanks for the additional information about the book and also the link to the video review – it’s nice to see what the book looks like inside especially the quality of drawings.
I’m purely an amateur hobbyist.
The tricks that I currently perform are: Chinese Coin Assembly, Winged Silver, Cardini Steal, and I am currently working on Deep Palm Tenkai Pennies and Dai Vernon’s Spellbound. I am trying to do tricks that can be done anywhere with borrowed coins.
I’m at a reasonable standard with cards, but decided about a year ago to learn some coin magic.
Having studied both the Royal Road to Card Magic and Card College Vol. 1 & 2 (I’m currently studying Vol. 3), I decided to go with modern hard back books and therefore didn’t get Bobo’s Modern Coin Magic, but got Kaufman’s Coin Magic and Roth’s Expert Coin Magic instead. These books aren’t quite the coin version of the Card College series that I was hoping for, but I’m still glad I bought them as they are great books. However, I eventually conceded and got Bobo, but I have never really got on with it. I also have David Roth’s Expert Coin Magic Made Easy DVDs, but I prefer to sit down and study books.
Recently, I became aware that Milt Kork was a major contributor to Bobo’s book and also had his own book, published by Hermetic Press. I knew then that it must be a good book, but it seams to have escaped most people’s radar and gets very few reviews or recommendations which puzzled me, but then again until recently I had never heard of him either.
It sounds like it might be the right book to give me a few more tricks, both coin and card (and maybe other objects) to add to my repertoire.
Once again, Thanks!
Phil.
Hi Phil -
The unique fact about Kort was he was always a hobbyist…The Kort book also has several anecdotes and biographical sketches. You’ve got a good collection of books in the coin magic donmain. Coin Magic, Expert Coin Magic and Bobo’s comprise the top 3 commonly recommended books. As you study other performers, you’ll find a lot of other solid coin material.
A lot material has transitioned to DVD since it is faster to produce that writing, drawing and printing the publications. I’ll be putting up a DVD page as well. Curtis Cam as some great advanced coin work on DVD. Ofcourse, the real goal should be to be entertaining.
Despite all the 3 Fly, Lassen-SchoolCraft-Flipper-Shell-gimmicks, and trick coin trickery, my favorite coin presentation is Ron Bauer’s Gadabout Coins Revisited.
http://www.thinklikeaconjurer.com/all24rbps/gadabout/index.htm
For $10 bucks, it is one of the best presentation based coin effects I’ve seen…and have included it in my close-up work for the past 10 years.
I’d like to see you Winged Silver presentation…do you have a YouTube video handy? If not, post it and the rest of the coin magic community can collaborate!
Hi Drew,
I’m afraid I don’t have any videos, but I will let you know when I do.
PS. Nice to see the razor blade trick. You’ve just convinced me to get the book.
Thanks,
Phil.