Ramsay Cylinder and Coins Props
Professionally crafted by Thomas Wayne
There comes a point in time that most serious coin magicians will attempt to learn John Ramsay's famed Cylinder and Coins routine. The routine is one of Ramsay's most famous, and it is considered among magicians one of the most challenging routines to master. The routine is Ramsay's evolution on the Cap and Pence routine which has been performed for centuries.
Ramsay's original routine can be found in a few places including: Victor Farelli's monograph, John Ramsay's Cylinder and Coins, Andrew Galloway's, The Ramsay Classics, as well as the recently released Andrew Galloway video by International Magic, "The Magic of John Ramsay" wherein Mr. Galloway performs and teaches the routine on video. Other variations have been released most notably in the works of John Carney, R. Paul Wilson, Mike Gallo, and Lewis Ganson.
Late last year I determined to acquire the necessary props to perform the routine.
The original Ramsay routine used a cylinder of cardboard painted silver, 4 coins, a 4 coin stack, a magic wand, and two little pieces of cork. During the routine the spectator's are only aware of 4 coins and one piece of cork.
Master craftsman Thomas Wayne has created the most elegant and beautiful props for the Ramsay Cylinder and Coins routine that I have ever laid eyes upon. I highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for finest props available for the routine.
Lets take a look at each individual item and what makes them so unique:
The Cylinder: The cheap way to make a cylinder especially in a dollar size is to use a cardboard toilet paper roll and paint it. This not only looks cheap, but the cardboard roll does not hide very well the "squeezing" of the cylinder necessary for some of the moves in the routine. Many magicians now use a leather cylinder for the routine. Before I got Thomas' cylinder, a friend of mine had a leather shop take a thick piece of leather and roll it into a proper diameter cylinder and stitch the seam. The cylinder works, but it is prone to mishapening if care is not taken to keep the cylinder from crushing during non-use. The interior of the cylinder was the rough underside of leather that was prone to flaking off tiny bits of leather as coins rubbed the interior. I would assume over time the interior would be worn a bit smoother.
Lets look at Thomas' beautiful cylinder: The cylinder measures 2 5/8" high. The cylinder is reinforced with a semi rigid material that enables the cylinder to maintain its structural integrity. This semi rigid material is then wrapped with soft leather inside and out, the leather is rolled over both ends of the cylinder then stitched to the cylinder's exterior. This forms eye pleasing rims to the cylinder. The cylinder is capped with two custom crafted cocobolo wood end caps. The end caps have O-rings recessed in them to ensure a snug seal into the cylinder. When the end caps are in place, the combination of the caps with the semi-rigid cylinder makes the cylinder extremely durable and very hard to crush. You can also store your coins, coin stack, and cork pieces set up to perform conveniently encapsulated inside the cylinder when the caps are on.
The stack of coins: A traditional Ramsay stack is made with 4 coins joined together with the bottom 3 coins bored out. It may seem simple enough, but it is a process not very easy to do. First, one must find a way to hold the coins while boring a very large hole into them, and then one must join them together. Epoxy or superglue will work until you drop the gaff on a hard surface, then you have a broken stack (especially when dropping heavy coins like silver dollars).
Thomas' coin stacks are extremely
durable and light. The bottom coins have holes individually bored slightly off
center and 3 pin holes are drilled. One of the coins is turned down so it has a
smaller diameter. This enables a shell coin to be placed over it. The top coin
is machined into a shell and is permanently affixed to the smaller diameter
coin. All of the coins are then pinned together via three brass pins. The
stack appears slightly staggered like a real stack would. Finally, the entire
assembly is chucked into a special collet that will
hold
the staggered stack true, and the center cavity is bored out to a maximum final
size. (You can see from the picture on the left, that the hole is bored almost
to the pins.) The extra large boring insures
there will be no fumbling to place the stack over the cork piece. The final
result of Thomas' work is a stack that will NEVER come apart, that has the
largest possible bore hole and lightest weight - extremely desirable properties
for the intended purpose of the gaff. If you perform a variant of the Ramsay
routine that uses three coins (as pictured), Thomas' "shell top" three coin
stack can deceptively cover a thick cork slice.
This is something not possible with a solid top coin on a three coin stack.
The Wand: Thomas Wayne is one of the top custom pool cue makers in the world - has won 1st place in every national billiard organization for custom cue work. Thomas utilizes the same cue crafting expertise for his custom wands. The wands are crafted with rare woods, inlaid exotic gems or precious metals, etc. If you want a custom made wand, prices depend on materials and design intricacy.
Prices for Thomas' professional Ramsay Cylinder and Coins props are as follows:
Two types of cylinders:
$1 cylinder w/caps - $105.00
$1/2 cylinder w/caps - $90.00
Three types of coin stacks
Four coin $1/2 stack - $72.00
Three coin $1 stack - $90.00
Four coin $1 stack - $100.00
Thomas also provides a $10 credit if you provide your "top" coin to match the coins you use for $1 size stacks.
The Wand – Varies according to materials and design.
The props are available directly through Thomas Wayne (click his name to email him).