Review on "Artifact coins" by Ellusionist
 

i just got one from a magic supplier nearby, and i wanted to do a small review on it( since all i've been doing lately is replying, never actually starting one)

Quality: the way the coin have handled so far, it's of good quality, it's not as heavy as a Morgan dollar but still have a certain weight to it, so it's probably part silver( i'm not a pro, so i can't tell for sure). The surface of the coin have a rust-proof coating so it's quite smooth, and doesn't scratch easily.

Usage: since it's a bit heavy, you can control it quite easily( most air-borne moves would keep it near your body, unless you throw it like a baseball, it won't go anywhere out of a radius of 2 meters of your body. The coin is a bit thicker than a real dollar, so it might hurt if you apply too much pressure to it.

Pricing: it stands at $11.99 per dollar-sized coins and $6.99 per half-dollar-sized coins, so unless you're a collector, an investor or simply want a cool thing to play around with, this coin isn't worth your attention. Try looking for a real coin... it's probably cheaper if you do so( unless you look for a real silver morgan dollar...)

Thoughts: the design on it looks cool, and it will look really good when you give it out for examination after doing a trick. But the design SCREAMS gimmick to the eyes of a layman, and it's... very hard to do anything with your prop being possibly yanked from your hands any moment, plus, there's no jumbo version for it so one of coin magic's biggest crowd pleaser is unusable. so it's staying on my display case, but it's not gonna see any action anytime soon, not unless i lose my silver dollar.

@below: exactly!

Mmmm, coins :p I love my 4 Morgan Dollars + Shell set. If only I was good at coin magic I'd bust them out more often but for now cards have taken over. I saw the Artifact coins when I was shopping around and I do like the look of them, and other similar offerings from other companies; however I'd always rather have the beauty of a handful of well worn real silver dollars.

Personally I love my walking liberty halves

Something I really really like about the Artifact coins is that there is zero branding on them and they look really stunning. I dig the quotes too. I suppose they make any magician look smart. ^_^

Something that may be arguable is whether the coins are a bit too heavy or not. And the sizes are perfect for me but if you have smaller hands you may never be able to use the full dollar sized ones since those are really big. I guess they should have made a smaller version too, rather than just extra-large (dollar size) and medium (half dollar size).

What I really don't like is that the silver coins feel rough there where the copper ones feel slippery and the silver ones are way less shiny than the copper ones. In very bright color change situations this latter aspect would be a plus because the contrast would be bigger, but in average or low light situations (which are far more common) this is a really bad thing, especially when wearing dark clothes because the silver coins would be amazingly difficult if not impossible to see.

That said, nothing beats your average currency coins. Remember that magic is about making the impossible happen with props your spectators are familiar with.

With things that look like they could be gimmicked, be it cards or coins, I like to use the patter saying that they really are, well not gimmicked, but magical. If you tell them that there is something strange with the coin, if you try to grab it, it vanishes and appears somewhere else, it seems like the object has magical properties, and I find it actually takes spectator's attention away from what you are doing. I get less of "How did you do that?" and more of "How did that happen?"

But you can do the exact same thing with normal looking props and you would end up with the same if not better reactions. If I would do a one coin-routine with a 2 euro coin over here in the Netherlands, I get better reaction than if I would do it with an American half dollar because people don't recognize that over here.

Even if they can examine everything and can be sure it's just a regular coin, there will always be a subconscious suspicion when using props they have never seen before, as little as it may be.

:thinking: that's true... For unfamiliar things like the Artifact coin, I guess it's better than nothing in terms of patter, if you absolutely had to use that coin. and it's a 7 dollar coin, it'd be a waste not to try it out :P