Hello. I'm new to this forum. I am a magician and this has led to new hobby and interest in numismatism.

I collect half dollar and dollar-size American coins and foreign coins somewhere between those two sizes if they are interesting. I love seated liberties and Capped Bust halves and have started collecting commemorative halves. Some of my favorite foreign coins are South African 1960 Elizabeth coins with a ship on the reverse (I believe they are dimes). Also, I love Irish Pigeon pennies, 1937 Australian Silver Dollars, 1890s jubilee half crowns and Isle of Man coins with the three legs - like the 1831 half token, among others.

Any ideas for me?

Ideally these suggestions would be coins that aren't too expensive (see above), are available (so I could get 5-10 in similar patina/aging), sized between half and dollar size, approximately and have an interesting/unusual image. Thanks!

Have you considered Latin American coins that were at one time pegged to the dollar? The Panama Balboa, Venezuelan Bolivar and Cuban Peso at one time were all pegged to the dollar and you can find half and silver dollar sized coins for little more than silver value, and they are very cool! I have several of each and quite a few Balboas, very nice designs and they all say their silver content too, so there is little confusion.

Nice. I appreciate the advice and I especially like the Balboas. Any other ideas, I'd love to hear them. Silver coins always great.

I love 8 Reale coins.

British Half-Crowns and Crowns are great coins to look into, as are Irish Half-Crowns.

Surprized you haven't discussed this with a magic shop or supply house. One such magic shop by me has 2 headed halves, quarters, nickels. Two tailed of the same. Also, nickels with a cent of dime on the other side. If I were you I'd start a collection of all those wierd types used in that profession. Not sure if they have them in dollar sizes but that too would be something.
Other than that you should probably just look up coin shows in your area and go to some. There you could get a really great, well rounded idea of what is available.
NOW, POOF, I'm gone.

Welcome to the CoinPeople forum, organiccollector!

I have two cousins (brothers) who are professional magicians. Other than coin tricks, I am not sure what numismatics has to do with that particular skill or trade. Are you interested in numismatics as to how they can serve being a better (or more interesting/marketable) magician, or are you interested in numismatics apart from that?

Seated Liberty coins (regardless of size and/or denomination), and especially Capped bust halves, might not lend themselves to magics ... because:

#1, they are very expensive, even in grades of VG-VF;
#2, your audience (or 80%-90% of them) won't even know that they are/were U.S. American legal currency at one time!

Morgan dollar coins in VF/XF in common dates are readily available, even in bulk, at prices close to the daily silver spot price; many Walker halves also. Forget about seated or capped bust halves if you don't want to pay many times over that (not to mention silver dollars from that time period).

All of this is just my 2 cents worth, of course ... (1864 small motto, preferably in XF or better, please!)

OUCH!
("well rounded" ... intentional or not??)

Japanese 50 silver sen of Meiji era and Korean 1/2 won struck in 1905-6 are also nice coins

I am not an amateur magician and I have been to a magic shop. My interest here is not in two-headed quarters.

Having started collecting coins to use in tricks (usually in sets of 5, if possible), I got into coins because many magicians like using older coins as a point of interest. There are many magicians - amateur and professional alike - that use primarily walkers, morgans, peace dollars and barbers. I like the old coins myself and do collect coins on the side. However, I like to collect coins I can use in doing tricks.

The coins that work best are sized between Kennedy halves and Morgan Dollars. But, I've tried coin shops and coin shows with limited success. This site has already been quite useful, though.

Since coming here, I've started accumulating '35 Bolivars and '34 Balboas. Those were great recommendations - very lovely coins. I was already starting on Jubilee-era Crowns and Half Crowns (British) and I've got a collection of '37 Australian Crowns, restrike Thalers and a number of early Isle of Man halfpennies and halftokens.

Junk Seated Halves and Capped Bust Halves are fine as far as price range recommendations - I already use Seated Liberties to do tricks and have probably at least 40 or 50 of them. Same with Capped Bust Halves.

My main interest is finding coins that:

+ Have an interesting/unusual appearance (such that it would be a point of discussion when doing a trick)
+ Available for a reasonable amount (say, $10-$25, ideally, though I buy junk capped bust halves for up to $35)
+ Possible to find in matching patinas with similar wear
+ Preferably silver, copper, brass
+ The coins have a somewhat consistent look (so its tougher with hand stamped - even capped busts are pretty inconsistent, but do ok)
+ Sized ideally between an american half dollar and dollar size coin, though slightly bigger is ok
+ Especially sought are coins sized the same as a capped bust half (which is the same as a 1889 jubilee british half crown)

Thanks!

Please feel free to continue making recommendations - they are quite helpful.

What about some Historic British and English Coinage? Check out my site and contact me if you have any queries at all.

Cheers,

Clive.

You should look into German mark coinage from the turn of the 1900's. They are easily found, not all that expensive in common date/junk as you described, and very interesting in design. Check my Omnicoin for some examples. Good luck.

How big are those turn of the century Marks and Prussian coins? Those are nice.

The 5 (funf) mark is about 38 mm.
The 3 (drei) mark is about 32 mm.
The 2 (zwei) mark is about 28 mm.
The 1 (eine) mark is about 23 mm.

They are nice silver coins that don't cost much more (sometimes less) than US coins from the same period.

Just another to have a look at is some of the New Zealand commemaritive $1, they are about the size of the Morgans and can be picked up relatively cheaply, sorry I don't have any pics done at the moment. Some nice designs on them.

Some Sasanian drachms