Magician coin?

[Megalodon]

One of the last finds before this epically stinky skunk streak (15 boxes of 1994-P halves) was my first 2-sided coin:

The obverse is a Kennedy bicentennial half but the reverse is a British 1967 One Penny. The edge shows reeding added to the penny. The coin weighs 11.82 grams, so heavier than normal clad halves, a few of which I weighed at between 11.17 to 11.25 g. What was the purpose of this coin?

 

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[gordon and tanner]

Magician Coin used for "Scotch and Soda" trick.
The English Penny should be able to be released from the Kennedy. You can shake it in a glass to see if you can get it apart, or you can by a bang ring from a Magic Shop to release it properly.

Check out this Amazon ad, it even has a video demo of the trick.
https://madhattermagicshop.com/magicshop/product_info.php?products_id=13459

Keep on Searching
Dad and Tanner

 

[TxAg]

Cool find Megalodon! I once found a 1920 something English penny in a half dollar MWR.

 

[TxAg]

You got 15 boxes of 1994-P halves! Wow! Were they in US Mint rolls? I guess you kept a few nice ones for your collection and tossed the rest, huh? Were there any nice ones with the die crack that goes from the point of the neck to the rim? Much more common on the 1996-P & 1998-P, but can be found on the 1994-P as well.

 

[RTR]

Years ago I bought a 2 headed dime .Won lots of bets with that coin

 

[Avago]

If you toss it on a table it'll sound hollow and won't ring like a normal coin would. I've found loads of them, usually when the coin machine rejects them from my dump.

 

[Megalodon]

You got 15 boxes of 1994-P halves! Wow! Were they in US Mint rolls? I guess you kept a few nice ones for your collection and tossed the rest, huh? Were there any nice ones with the die crack that goes from the point of the neck to the rim? Much more common on the 1996-P & 1998-P, but can be found on the 1994-P as well.

Nope - but I haven't looked at them that closely. I've reduced my standing order slightly to 4 boxes per week total. I'll start looking for the die crack - thanks for the advice. Of course, I won't mind if I never see a 1994-P again...

 

[Megalodon]

Cool find Megalodon! I once found a 1920 something English penny in a half dollar MWR.

Haven't found one that old but did find earlier this year in half rolls a 1964 Ireland 1 Penny with the rooster, and a 1962 2 Cents of 1962 from the British Caribbean Territories. Same diameter as a US half dollar.

 

[Megalodon]

You got 15 boxes of 1994-P halves! Wow! Were they in US Mint rolls? I guess you kept a few nice ones for your collection and tossed the rest, huh? Were there any nice ones with the die crack that goes from the point of the neck to the rim? Much more common on the 1996-P & 1998-P, but can be found on the 1994-P as well.

My competition uses one of the two credit unions I use to dump so I looked at the contents of the last two bag changes there and he is also getting these 94-P coins. Between the two of us, we are filling bags at the coin machines with 94-P halves. Looks like a massive dump from the mint. What kind of rolls does the mint use? Are they labelled US Mint?

 

[TorqueMaster]

I don't think you have the "scotch and soda" magician's coin, I think it's just a 2-sided coin. The reeding is wrong. Based on the ones I've seen, the reverse of the half should be milled out right up to the raised rim, but all the reeding left intact. The hole left is filled by a plug which has a US half on one side, and a foreign coin on the other, which fits so snugly you can barely see the hairline even if you're looking for it.

Like others asked, does it sound hollow when dropped? If you shake it in a glass bottle does it come apart? I'm betting no...

 

[Megalodon]

I don't think you have the "scotch and soda" magician's coin, I think it's just a 2-sided coin. The reeding is wrong. Based on the ones I've seen, the reverse of the half should be milled out right up to the raised rim, but all the reeding left intact. The hole left is filled by a plug which has a US half on one side, and a foreign coin on the other, which fits so snugly you can barely see the hairline even if you're looking for it.

Like others asked, does it sound hollow when dropped? If you shake it in a glass bottle does it come apart? I'm betting no...

It definitely sounds different than a normal clad half, but not really like a hollow coin - more leaden in tone. And not the brassy sound of a large cent. We actually got a 64 Kennedy that had been hollowed out with silver removed from the inside through a tiny hole in the reeded edge. It was over 50 years ago but we bounced that coin many times and I still remember the sound. Though we had no scale back then, it was noticeably lighter.

Tried shaking it in a pint oyster jar and it hasn't come apart. I suspect you are right and it is a 2-sided coin, but with excellent workmanship. Thanks.

 

[Avago]

Maybe it's just the "inside" trick portion of the magician's coin. The diameter would probably be slightly smaller than a real half dollar.

There may be a one-sided hollowed out Kennedy-reverse piece floating around out there somewhere...

 

[Captaindoodle]

Maybe it's just the "inside" trick portion of the magician's coin. The diameter would probably be slightly smaller than a real half dollar.

There may be a one-sided hollowed out Kennedy-reverse piece floating around out there somewhere...

I have found several tails/reverse only pieces of magicians coins in rolls and have them in an "odd" junk bag. They look like the back case of a watch and the inside is polished copper if well made.

I also have 2 sided heads and tails Kennedy halves...when I found the 1st one I thought it was an error before I learned it was impossible because of the minting process .

 

[port ewen ace]

why complicate this.... run HOT water over the coin, then throw on a floor---- it will come apart. Scotch & Soda: found 8 or 9 of those, all sold from $8 to 9 each--- better than a 90% silver

 

[LooseChange]

This is not the Scotch and Soda coin. The change in edge reeding that OP discusses is the giveaway.

The Scotch and Soda magic trick prop is a pair of coins (such as half dollars) that have been machined so that the obverse of one of the coins and the reverse of the the other join together in a way that leaves a hollow area that can hold another, smaller-diameter, thinner coin inside (such as a centavo). For this prop, the visible reeded edge is uniform (the entire reeded edge is from one side or the other of the two coins used to make the trick). OP's coin has an edge with a "seam" and so it appears to be a half dollar obverse and One Penny reverse that have been split off of their as-minted origins and then joined.

It is a novelty creation, possibly a magic trick prop, but it is not a Scotch and Soda prop. It will not open.

 

[port ewen ace]

This is not the Scotch and Soda coin. The change in edge reeding that OP discusses is the giveaway.

The Scotch and Soda magic trick prop is a pair of coins (such as half dollars) that have been machined so that the obverse of one of the coins and the reverse of the the other join together in a way that leaves a hollow area that can hold another, smaller-diameter, thinner coin inside (such as a centavo). For this prop, the visible reeded edge is uniform (the entire reeded edge is from one side or the other of the two coins used to make the trick). OP's coin has an edge with a "seam" and so it appears to be a half dollar obverse and One Penny reverse that have been split off of their as-minted origins and then joined.

It is a novelty creation, possibly a magic trick prop, but it is not a Scotch and Soda prop. It will not open.

YUP--- you are correct...........................just looked at the rim--- I now will proceed to place the dunce cap on

 

[Megalodon]

Thanks all for the helpful comments! Learned a lot by reading all your posts - thanks for being so informative!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

A magician's coin trick called "Copper-Silver". It is a very convincing illusion that requires a bit of slight of hand to accomplish.