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Coin manipulation is the art of manipulating coins in skillful flourishes, usually on or around the hands.[1] Although not always considered coin magic, the flourishes are sometimes used in magic shows. The difficulty of the trick ranges greatly, from some that take a few minutes to accomplish, to much more complex ones that can take months, even years, to master. One of the best-known flourishes is the relatively advanced coin walk.
The coin walk is a type of coin flourish in which a coin is flipped over the fingers to create the illusion of a coin walking across the back of the hand. It is one of the most famous coin manipulation feats. It is also known as the coin roll, knuckle roll, and the steeplechase flourish, and can also be performed with poker chips, slugs, or other similar implements.
The manipulation is generally performed on the first phalanx bone of each finger of one hand. After the coin has been flipped over by each phalanx, not including the smallest finger, the thumb brings the coin back under the hand and back to the index finger to repeat the sequence as many times as desired.
In popular culture
Van Heflin's character Sam performs this manipulation throughout the 1946 film The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Woody Allen's character Miles Monroe also performs this to seduce Diane Keaton's character Luna in the 1973 film Sleeper. The characters Peter, Walter, and Elizabeth Bishop perform this trick in the TV show Fringe. Steve Carell and Alan Arkin also perform this feat in tandem (almost a "dueling knuckle walk") in the movie The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. In the 2017 Indian Tamil film Bairavaa, the protagonist (Vijay) is shown doing this feat several times throughout the film. Connor, a protagonist in the 2018 game Detroit: Become Human, is shown doing various coin tricks as the player progresses through the game. Actor Val Kilmer can be seen doing the feat in both Tombstone as Doc Holliday and in the movie Real Genius, performing a double-handed continuous hand roll.
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