Our title is borrowed from Reginald Scot, who promised back in 1584 that if you would only learn to palm a coin in your right hand, you could "shew a hundreth pleasant conceipts". A bold claim, and yet did Albert Goshman really need much more? J. B. Bobo chose this passage to open Modern Coin Magic. And, since that's where we'll start, what better way to begin?

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He that hath once atttained to the facilitie of reteining one piece of monie in his right hand, may shew a hundreth pleasant conceipts by that means, and reserve two or three as well as one....By this devise (I say) a hundreth conceipts may be shewed.
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I thought we'd start with a book burning. By "book" I mean J.B. Bobo's Modern Coin Magic. ("MCM") Both the 1952 and the 1966 editions. By "burning", I mean to give to that text the same rapt attention your hands receive from your most skeptical and attentive "spectators". Like those belligerent viewers, I hope that by keeping a tight and unblinking focus, we might discover the secrets that will allow us to understand how the magic is done.

We'll leave the belligerence at the door, however. My own adventures in coinmanship began some 30-odd years ago with this book, and it was an introduction that would last a lifetime. By now, I think I've got something to say about most every chapter. I don't presume to be the final word. I'm far more interested in starting discussions than ending them. And while we're on that subject, if you've got comments, criticisms, questions, or corrections, take them outside. To the appropriate discussion section of the Café, that is, since you-all aren't able to post here. And if you do, please be sure to reference this column, so other people will know what we're up to here.

I mean to cover MCM chapter-by-chapter, not so much for the academic workout as for the wellspring of coin-related topics it contains. When we're done with MCM, if we ever get there, who knows?

And with that, we're off. Armed only with a handful of coins, a fair amount of experience, and as Charlie Miller used to say, "...a pair of hands, a great deal of nerve, and lots of hope."