The Whirl: A Coin Retention Sleight and Flourish

Another sleight of handster I hung around that summer in Pittsburgh was card mechanic and trick inventor Gary Plants, who asks that I describe a coin flourish I did. In "the whirl" as I'll call it a half dollar, held parallel to the floor, spins slowly around the fulcrum of the ball of the thumb. The way it works is that the right forefinger, on top of the coin on its edge, pushes forward, sending the coin inward, then pulls backward, moving the coin outward; by continuing these motions the coing slowly spins, or "whirls," in a plane. The main procedural point is that the ball of the right thumb, on which the coin sits, is not exactly at the center of the coin, but slightly near the edge; this, combined with the forefinger, pushing slightly down and riding the edge, allows for the coin's eccentric, rather than perfect orbit. Remember, the coin whirls in a position parallel to the floor.

This move is really only secondarily adapted as a flourish. The idea to use it for a flourish came from none other than Ed Marlo whom I must have met in Chicago earlier, although this seems impossible, because I was showing him a reconstruction of a David Williamson coin production I had learned at the convention. Oh well, another time trick! In any case the move itself I invented as a way to refine the classic coin retentions pass, first published in a somewhat strange version by Dai Vernon. (In Vernon's original version the right hand moves forward, bent at the wrist, after apparently putting the coin in the left hand.) David Roth's retention pass is essentially the same move but with the right hand moving more laterally and naturally to the left. Another excellent version (attributed to Steve Freeman) include using the left thumb pad to help squeeze the coin into the right fingertips as the left hand closes. You can also use the "whirl" or, indeed, a combination of the above methods. With the whirl used in this way the coin does spin around and around but only part of one rotation, and it does so not parallel to the floor but more perpendicularly as the right hand places the coin in the outstretched left fingers. Remember, in all coin or small object retention passes, the illusion depends upon as little movement as possible to accomplish the goal: making the coin arrive gently on the right finger tips rather than in the left palm where it is "seen" to be through persistence of version.

With a little practice you will find that the whirl can be reversed to produce a coin. Finally, the whirl makes an excellent method for disappearing a coin in a piece of cloth such as a handkerchief or the performer's shirt (in which case the left hand takes the coin from beneath through the shirt).