Three Coin Serenade by Jim Abrahams

Let's get it out of they way quickly. Coin magic is hard. Really hard. Compared to card magic it is much harder to make it clear what the effect is. If the light is wrong nobody sees the effect and the most beautiful copper silver routine becomes meaningless. This routine is obviously designed for table hopping. It covers all the needs. It takes up very little space, it is modular and it is ungimmicked.

Here is what I like about the use of the purse. It is totally motivated why it is there. It perfectly hides the little extra that is in play during the later part of the routine.  If the surface is right I noticed you don't even need to pick up the purse, just slide it into the "center" and all is set.

Using the purse instead of a playing card also helps to get a way with certain issues. A card "floats" when it is not supposed to float. As you place down the card on a hard surface a very tell tale sound could arise. Here the floating does not take place at all and the sound would be natural as the metal frame of the purse strikes the surface.

A playing card makes no sense. A purse does, when doing coin magic. In the end all the coins go back in the purse, which resets the routine making it practical, magical and overall a wonderful routine. The modular aspect enables you to either continue doing coin magic or to shorten the routine if needed. As I was experimenting with this I found out that this is a great opener to a table set. For several reasons. The coins are big, loud, interesting and NOT playing cards.