When I saw that Garrett Thomas was coming out with a new release I sat up on the edge of my seat and took a look at my finances. I just recenlty dug out my Stand-Up Monte and gave it the practice it deserves and gave it a few performances, it won me over and now I could be what they call a "stalker', this guy has worker material that hits them between the eyes. His stuff isn't the easiest but it's worth the time and effort to gather all the subtleties. The intro starts off with Garrett stating which form of gimmick he uses in certain situations. Justifying why he uses quarters in friendly situations and why he uses something bigger in half dollars in a situation not unlike a paid gig, and it has nothing to do with hiding the method.

Well now that I can stop acting like a Garrett Thomas fanboy, I can get on to the meat of this review, the trick itself. I don't think the secret to this effect is unknown but for safety sake I will call the secret something, "the gimmick". This comes with a nice tiny purse, it feels of rubbery material which seems to only fit the gimmick and dollars worth of quarters. Half dollars will not fit in the coin purse. The 2-Phase routine is shown in live performance at a table, even the 2 phase is hard hitting, but I dig the practice and will go with the "4-phaser". The added phases are a coins across in the magicians own hands, not unlike David Roth's Super Clean Coins Across. The last move from both phases are going to take work to make look natural, and G.T.'s live performances of both are going to give you the timing of the move. He gives alternatives where you don't even have to do the move, but it makes for an impossible conclusion.

There are a few behind the bar performances, one kid has a "EATCT" t-shirt so it's not fully laymen, but a mixture, I assume, more laymen than magicians.

I really enjoyed watching the "Audience Management" portion, he gives sound reasoning for actions and how to manage his audience for this effect. And if you didn't find the important timing of the last move of the phases in the explanation, it's found in the "Audience Management" portion, this one really helped me out on the move."OTS" is the Over the shoulder portion which gives great insight on all the required moves, I believe he did this in the Stand-Up Monte DVD, this is great, thorough as can be, great for following along and practice. He gives an quick performance and explanation to Eric Jones, small G.T. touches here worth learning but not much different than a normal C.A. routine, great to have on this DVD though, the handling is a touch different than other handlings I've seen. "Zero Coins Across" is a great conversation to watch between Eric Jones and Garrett Thomas, they share their theory on the impact of coins across and natural blocking techniques, Eric Jones showcases the way he does coins across, I believe this is on his "Extension of Me" and boy is it great! The "Jump" ending is one to practice when you have a table and they are bugging to ask you to "do it again". Quarters sandwhiched inbetweeen 2 pennies, that are used for a distraction, are place on the table, the quarters vanish from in between the pennies with a wave of the hand and appear under your other hand on the table or in the other hand, depending on what variation you want to use. The bloopers are the guys messing around probably in between shoots, just fun to watch.

I feel that this is a worker routine and one to really practice, even if it's just the 2-phase routine it's sooo darn worth it.





Overall Quality.

Product Quality: 10
Packaging is small and neat, great artwork, perfectly made gimmick, ready to go and practice, you even get a darn coin purse. You get a TON for your money.

Teaching Quality: 10
Garrett Thomas is thorough, there is an OTS view, different variations/handlings for specific steps in the routine, You even get theory along the way I couldn't ask for more.

Video & Sound Quality: 10
I have no complaints, great quality, sound is clear.

Overall Quality: 10
The effect is wonderful, definitley caters to the audience in terms of impact, I love this routine.

All in all, this trick is amazing!
The DVD is flawless and covers more than enough.

For international buyers;

There is only one thing I can fault. The gimmick is great,
but there are no more coins to complete this trick.
As I live in Australia, our currency is different and there is no way of getting American coins.. Real bummer when I went to banks and money exchange places to get 4 quarter dollars/half dollars and none can be found.

I have tried completing this trick with our currency but 8/10 notice the different coin.

With the price I payed I expected all the coins to be included. Other wise its a great trick but unless you have American currency, i'd think twice.

This trick is, simply put, amazing. I got this trick and learned it in 1 day. It is relatively simple slight of hand.

Out of all the tricks that I have, this one definitely gets the best reactions. It is even better than "Vanishing Pen!" I love close-up, so this is my dream trick.

Once you learn the method and how simple the gimmick is, you can get other gimmicks and do the trick with others.

It also comes with a GREAT coin purse!

Imagination Coins is intimate coin "magic" because it happens in their hands and their minds. It's the prefect effect for the close up worker.

With Garrett Thomas's "Imagination Coins", coins vanish and appear in their hands. For lay people, there is only one explanation: it's magic.

There's no filler on this DVD. Garrett takes us on a 2 hr. adventure tipping the real work on his prized coin effect. An effect he's performed thousands of times until it reached perfection.

Imagination Coins takes the coin across plot where it's never gone before and Garrett gives his full workshop on his favorite coin effect!

I'm never one to perform an effect within 24 hrs of receiving it. So, like all my other material, I practiced. And i practiced this for over 2 weeks. Long story short..it failed the very 1st time I performed it. And It failed in the way that I feared it would.
I have since performed it 5 times. It failed once more the exact same way. So, 2 fails outta 6 tries...not too good. Doubt I'll perform it again.
This requires strong audience management...let me repeat...This requires strong audience management. And even then, it's risky. One really small, wrong move by the participant, and it's game over.
On a more positive note..this is absolutely beautiful, when done successfully.

A few things first: I did not purchase this from Penguin. I purchased this from a prominent NYC dealer about 4-5 years ago—whenever this first came out.

So I'm surprised to see this popping up at the top of the bestseller list again. Is this a revised illusion? Has this been on TV somewhere that I have not seen? (I don't watch a lot of TV, you see.)

So my review here is predicated on what I purchased some years ago. And normally I wouldn't care to review an effect after all these years, But I want to speak up because, with this particular illusion, I have been able to truly, truly stun an audience. I don't know any other effect I can do that equals this one.

First of all, yes, you might be entirely disappointed with the gimmick when you first open the box. (Isn't that true so many times?) The gimmick is certainly very well made, one of the best of its kind I've ever seen. In fact, you can use this gimmick for other effects you already know! (See below.) But...you won't find yourself thinking, "aha! something new!"

So please realize what you are paying for is the instruction, and fortunately it truly shines. The instruction is very thorough to begin with, but variations are presented as well, in terms of whether you would like this to be a multi-stage effect or not. There is a bonus effect taught that requires you to have a second gimmick, not provided. (Second gimmick does not need to be this product's gimmick—you can provide your own, for sure. You may even have a spare gimmick just sitting around.) This bonus effect is probably worth just as much as the original effect your are purchasing, so think of this purchase as a two-for-one.

I have performed this a number of times to strangers, friends, and family, and no other effect I have ever done has created this aura about me as a magician. Card magic? People expect a trick. For coin magic like this, people hold something...but see, you put a solid coin in their hands and suddenly it is gone; people have not experienced anything quite like this.

I also appreciate how flexible this illusion is. I combine this illusion with a swami style "guess-how-many-cents-I'm-holding" routine. I then move on to writing something secret on my business card, and before they know it I have performed a coin bend on their original, initialed coin. I leave my spectator with a coin that disappeared, returned by a bent coin (initialed by the spectator), and leaving my business card to boot. Truly a reputation maker.

My only caveat is that this isn't for the beginner, probably. You really must have audience management skills. The angles are not much of a problem, but you must realize you are going to be putting the gimmick right in the spectator's hands. Can you manage that? Are you comfortable with a ditch? Of course you can! Especially with the well taught video. (But if you aren't sure, well then you might need to move on to something else.)

Of all the magic I've ever purchased, this is easily within the top 5. Maybe even the top 2...

All I can say about this trick is HOLY CRAP! I never doubted this trick and I just bought it hoping that it would by easy to perform and that it really does what it says. I got it in the mail and found the gimmick. They include a really great DVD and coin purse to keep your gimmicked coin in. When I saw the gimmick, I was surprised. It was a gimmick that I was familiar with but didn't have. It was simple yet so deceptive. It really does have great reactions and since the magic happens in the spectators' hands, they even had a section on the DVD about audience management. I like that you don't have to use sleeves and there is no complicated slight of hand. This is not for an absolute beginner but great for novice magicians of any age. Minimal slight of hand skill required. It was a great trick and I will be sure to use it whenever I can! I bet you all are wondering what the gimmick is. I have the joy of knowing. If you want it, then go buy Imagination Coins. The only issue is that they went really cheap on the packaging. There are no flaws with the routines though!!! Go out and buy this not and stop thinking about it. It's worth the money!

Great thought of routine using the sort of gimmick most coin magicians would already have. Garrett improves upon the typical routine and makes it like mentalism. I saw him perform it live at Magic Live and I believe Eric Chien did the first phase in his AGT judge cut performance.
It's not easy, it takes practice, particularly that last move. and STRONG audience management. in some cases, I'm not sure I would allow spectator to handle it as much as is seen in the demo. But put in the practice it deserves and you should get great reactions!

Out of all the tricks I do, this one gets some of the biggest reactions. I was never a big coin guy for magic but this trick made me change my mind. I never go anywhere without imagination coins.

The gimmicks supplied with this trick are worth 30$ alone so you are paying 10$ for a DVD that is worth that alone just for the tips and performances suggested by Garret and Eric jones. The routine is a real mind blower as the magic happens right in the spectators hands. This is by far the best new coin routine in a while and is a must have for any magician looking to expand his act and needs a fantastic closing routine.