Magic Tricks

I bought two of these to match a gaff that came with Paul Richards' "Shanghai Coins," that I bought straight from Paul at the recent Seattle Penguin Event.

Pros: This does match other Johnny Wong gimmicks in appearance and size.

The edges have very thin, tiny grooves running around the circumference of the coin, which are barely perceptible but do help with palming the coin. They can't be seen from
6-12 inches away. It is not milled in the usual sense: no visible cuts/grooves perpendicular to the flat sides of the coin. This is really a good idea (although maybe unintentional for all I know) and imho, preferred over milled "Chinese" coins as made by Auke Van Dokkum. While historically, Asian coins from various countries were made with square holes, and some countries have coins with round holes, to my knowledge, the early/ancient Asians never milled their coins.

These won't talk when sliding across one another because of the smooth paper stickers affixed to each side (see below).

Cons: The coin is pretty fake looking. There is no actual hole in the coin. It is a solid disk with a hole painted on a sticker along with the rest of the design. One side has a sticker with a fake hole and 4 "Chinese" characters and the other side has a sticker with a fake hole and seemingly random curvy lines that look like a variant of the (much nicer & 3D) Ton Onosaka fake Japanese coins.

This explains why you can also buy stickers from Johnny Wong - these will wear with usage and need replacement. This also means the coins are not "3D" with carved or molded symbols.

And, for whatever reason, there are no replacement stickers included with the coins...you'd think they'd throw in maybe 5-10 sets. (Paul includes 5 stickers with his "Shanghai Coins" set, which is much appreciated - and for that set you only need one side). No stickers took this from a 3 to a 2 for me.

Paul stated that none of the commercially available "Chinese" or "Asian" coins are real coinage that was ever used. While that is true, some of the others do have a more authentic and, imho, much less cheesy appearance. They also won't require maintenance sticker replacement. While some performers won't care, and certainly many uncritical audiences won't, I think discerning performers may be disappointed. To each their own. YMMV.

Oh, and remember to buy some stickers when you get the coin(s), you will want them.

Good luck!