Reviews: Read What Miguel Martin Is Saying

Modern Coin Manipulation

reviewed by Miguel Martin (confirmed purchase)
Rating: ★★★★★ (Date Added: Thursday 29 September, 2005)

I'm new to coin magic and to sleight based magic. When I found this book, my main hope was that it would give me enough basic information to start with, but after reading most of it, I've found that it wasn't written for a beginner. I also got Jean Hugard's Coin Magic and JB Bobo's Modern Coin Magic - both are better for beginners. Modern Coin Manipulation is often very difficult to read, as the English sounds dated now. There are some really good sections that would probably be very interesting to anyone curious about past magicians/acts. Downs was obviously a master at his art - back palming 40 half dollars should be proof of that - but the passages don't really come across as simple, clear teaching. The most frustrating aspect of this book was that the illustrations were usually 4 + pages after the text that referenced them. Flipping back and forth gets kinda old fast in this case. All in all, a great deal for 4.50 - but it wasn't the be-all, end-all I secretly hoped for.