Forcing a Coin Toss

[epepke]

I'm finding it a lot harder to force a coin toss with the new state quarters, as both the head and tails are flatter and harder to feel. Anybody have suggestions, other than making sure I have an older quarter?

 

[rustypouch]

Two headed quarter?

 

[Brown]

"Heads I win, tails you lose."

(Works with people under five years of age and with some intoxicated people.)

 

[Brown]

Seriously, I believe I spotted a two-headed quarter recently that included the "smaller" Washington portrait of the state quarters.

 

[T'ai Chi]

I'm finding it a lot harder to force a coin toss with the new state quarters, as both the head and tails are flatter and harder to feel. Anybody have suggestions, other than making sure I have an older quarter?

Hmm, if you can find a coin that was lightly filed with a metal file on one side, that would do the trick.

 

[epepke]

Two headed quarter?

Too cheesy. If it weren't so good to do with someone else's quarter, I could always just keep a regular quarter.

 

[rustypouch]

I agree completely. I've never forced a coin toss before, and it was the first thing that came to mind.

I think it would be like doing a trick with a special deck. When the audience asks to see you have to shout NO! and run away.

 

[epepke]

I agree completely. I've never forced a coin toss before, and it was the first thing that came to mind.

I think it would be like doing a trick with a special deck. When the audience asks to see you have to shout NO! and run away.

Fing is, forcing a coin toss is one of the few tricks that require zero misdirection. The audience can be watching intently the entire time and not see it happening. They can call it in the air, and it looks exactly the same. That alone makes it cool.

Too bad those golden dollars didn't make it. They were great.

 

[T'ai Chi]

I was reading a coin price guide yesterday at Borders, and they have a section on the new state quarters, where they show many of these quarters and highlight the raised parts with red!

Some of these quarters have raised spots that have easily memorizable high spot patterns.

 

[scribble]

Isn't this why it's traditional to call your toss in the air? One guy throws, the other guy says heads/tails - and it lands on the ground, not in someone's hand.

Or am I misinformed on coin-tossing etiquette?

 

[epepke]

Isn't this why it's traditional to call your toss in the air? One guy throws, the other guy says heads/tails - and it lands on the ground, not in someone's hand.

Or am I misinformed on coin-tossing etiquette?

I can't say too much about this without giving away the trick. However, if you notice the coin tosses on sports game, the coin tosser tosses it, catches it, and slaps it on the back of the other hand. They don't let it fall on the ground.

 

[T'ai Chi]

If the coin toss is where the coin hits the ground, then wouldn't it make sense to always call the side with the less material on it? (like the number 6 comes up most frequently on dice tosses)

 

[Brown]

If the coin toss is where the coin hits the ground, then wouldn't it make sense to always call the side with the less material on it? (like the number 6 comes up most frequently on dice tosses)

In casinos that offer dice games, the dice are frequently inspected to be sure that no number is more likely to come up on any die than any other number.

 

[T'ai Chi]

That's certainly true with casino dice, but not regular dice people by at say grocery stores.

 

[scribble]

I can't say too much about this without giving away the trick. However, if you notice the coin tosses on sports game, the coin tosser tosses it, catches it, and slaps it on the back of the other hand. They don't let it fall on the ground.

Well, that makes 'the trick' an obvious one. I don't watch much sports, but the one coin toss I can recall seeing, it went ot the ground. Much safer.

 

[Randy with a "Y"]

Might I suggest that you use your own quarter that you are familiar with? There's no reason you can't use the "Bobo Switch" or similar subterfuge.

The only problem you might run into is that somebody might give you a coin that doesn't look enough like yours to pass the test.

Heck! I wonder if a large portion of the population would even notice if they gave you a State Quarter or not. Money is so ubiquitous that most people don't even give it a second thought!

 

[epepke]

Thanks for all the responses. I've decided that what I'm going to do is, when I receive a coin, if it's a state quarter, do a little spiel about state quarters while I memorize the feel of the faces.