Well, actually,  I have been here but it's been hectic at the very least.  I've been pounding out coins and also got on a new schedule for now....rising early and exercising for and hour and a half, then helping the contractors I have over here, and then getting into the shop.  So I've been falling asleep during prime blogging hours. 

Hank Miller New user Colorado Springs, CO 21 Posts

Posted: Jun 27, 2009 1:01pm                I see that Bob Kohler has his NEW site up and running. There are some killer effects - the one I thought was great was the Wenger Spirit Bell. You have to look at the video to appreciate it. Also, if you subscribe to the newsletter you get a free trick by Jack Birnman. Once again Bob has put out nothing but top quality!! You can get to it by going to https://www.bobkohlermagic.com

Meet Hank Miller... if his picture doesn't come through...here he is. 

Looking at his profile, it seems he is basically just on Magic Cafe to promote Bob Kohler products.  Anyway, about 2 months ago, a guy from Colorado Springs named Gary Klatt called me and told me he had some Schoolcraft junk and wanted to replace it.  He asked if he could stop by and I said yes.  So, he shows up with the man I recognize here.....Hank Miller.  I thought Hank sounded or looked familiar, but he said no. 

(I should mention that around last winterish, rumor was that Bob Kohler was making late night statements about taking over the coin gaffing industry...blah blah.)

Hank and Gary spent a while in the shop looking around.   

You know, I have had some of my prototypes show up in another camp more than once.  I won't go into detail but you can guess the usual suspects and the fact that they visited me and spent time in my shop.  So far, I have been pretty careless about inviting strangers into my shop to have a look see.  I like to invite and meet people, but this little incident has made me a bit paranoid about inviting people I don't know into the shop area.  I had another guy a while back that was going to fly in just to see me for a day...that I had never heard of, and he was being a bit pushy so I avoided him like the plague. 

I just had a guy show up out of the blue on Saturday....from Mississippi, with his lovely wife Hilda.  His name was Ed Hands and the name on he and his wife's magic business card was "The Entertaining Hands" ...which I loved.  I got a good feeling from Ed and his wife, they seemed a lovely couple, and I was happy to show them around based on intuition. 

Now I have a customer that I am sure that I would trust wanting to bring 7 of his SAM members for a tour.  You know, that would be great, I'd like to do that and meet some new guys, but I think Hank is going to make me rethink about inviting total strangers over here to see the operation.  Anyone that knew what he was looking for could probably find it here.  If they were clever enough to take pictures, that could be near infiltration. 

It's a shitty thing to know what lengths some people will go, and how they may ruin it for people that I would like to meet.  Ah, the magic business...

Thoughts?  Comments? 

Here are 8 Barber expanded shell sets.  As you can see, all the coins are awesome, near full rim, and very good patina.  $190 each. 

The shell is on top of each stack.  Barbers are the most difficult of all coins to achieve a shell that is entirely void of all stress tells.  All of these very sturdy shells, when held in the right light, will show a minute amount of these stress areas to the trained eye.   Starting with coins of this quality though... that have a nice thick edge to expand and great patina... these stress areas are kept very minimal or entirely invisible to the non-trained eye.  It's the best I can do on these Mathew Clifton, but what I've got here represents years of screwing around to get them this good.  Yes, even Mathew would proudly display these on a sunny day in the park. 

How do you like the display on the piece of black palm wood?  Can't bring myself to use my signature blue dice anymore since fuckwad Magikoins ripped that off.  Oh well....change is good.....maybe he doesn't have any black palm.  Get ready to be barraged with half dollar stuff now for a while.  I've just spent over $4000 on halves, but I have everything....a nice stash.   I have guys that have been waiting half a lifetime for half dollar gaffs, so you guys are finally getting taken care of and there should be plenty more to go around. 

Next batch of copper triple threats is nearing completion also and revenging buddha sets are being roughed. 

Have a great time at the saturday farmer's market everyone.  I'll be in line for the portabella green chile smothered veggie or bean tamales and a large cap.....that should get things moving at warp speed. 

Just chanced on a big lot of cherry picked Barbers. I paid heftily for these, but now I am going back for the rest of them. They are that nice.

....thanks for finding your time to look here at this mostly happy horseshit....but the coins are good..... 

21 sets of beautifully matched, long awaited, soft Morgan Triple Threats...that who. 

Talked to Troy today.  I will have plenty of notes in a few days.   He said the material in the book was ALL good, and that he liked really everything in there.  Sounds great.  I'm actually psyched for this because I haven't seen any of the new material. 

Troy also related a small anecdote that I hadn't heard.  Seems many moons ago, he taught a special cut to someone and went over it with him move by move at a convention.  And believe it or not, a couple years later that special someone published it as his own and became rather famous for the cut.  Troy is too mellow, and little did we know.    

Sold.  Thank you. 

Still Have the 2 cheaper sets left.

I have this one set with 4 remilled uncirculated coins, unexpanded shell, and locking sliding shell.  $425.

I also have 2 original sets made with uncirc 1921 morgans.  These sets have just one coin remilled to fit the gaffus and come with 2 ungaffed matching coins.  $250 each.  And I have this one set with soft morgans with all 3 coins remilled to fit the gaff.  $300.

This AIN'T cheap copper.  Ok, these have been in the making for months.  And finally they are ready with the exception of polishing and hallmarking.  This was one of those projects that just kept getting more and more expensive and taking longer and longer than anticipated.  Anyway, I only have 20 sets of the 3 boxes, and that is the way I am going to sell them because I have 20 boxes of each.  Standard Okito, slot box, and Boston box.  I doubt there will be any more like these. 

These are super heavy, solid high grade copper boxes with big radius's on all the outside corners for ultra smooth and massively manly handling.  They will turn an awesome dark copper penny color with a bit of handling, and I speculate that these are going to be the coolest looking okito boxes ever made after they've been handled for a good long time.  You might get them to turn green too. 

Well, anyway...I'm impressed.  I'm going to ask $300 for a set of the 3 boxes and the truth is I should ask twice that for the time and materials invested this time.  I'm guessing I still have another 15 hours of polishing or so.  Remember that old Zappa lyric that went.....she can push, she can shove till it's just a nub?  Well, we are talking nubby fingers by the time these are done. 

               

These coins are about 1/32 bigger than a silver dollar.  Notice that the rim on the face of the coin is very thin before getting into the knurling.  When you try to make a copper/silver coin out of this coin, for instance, that rim will be gone...and that coin will now look like a piece of shit.  The faces of these coins are also higher than the rims, so they do not lie flat.  Try rubbing a couple of them together...Noisier than 2 skeletons screwing in a closet, using a tin can for a rubber.  No charge for that Schooltool.  Hope you didn't buy like thousands of them. 

But I had promised these to more people than I could deliver last go round. 

All right, the good deals on these are over, sorry about that.  I need to get $90 each for these sets, they were taking more time than I had thought.  No way to speed through these, they each require alot of finessy handwork to get them right.  If you consider bang for your buck, they still seem reasonable for that pricey Lassen shit, and it IS a 5 coin set.  It took an entire roll of my last remaining South African Pennies to make 10 of these sets.  You guys that wanted them last go round will still get them for the price offered at that time....if you want to be hard asses. 

The sets are the same as before.  Slippery gaff, mating silver coin, and shaved down mating copper coin.  Plus 2 ungaffed coppers so you can perform both the U3F and the U3F2 routines.  I have 8 walker sets and 2 Barber.

Finishing these up right now.  I've decided to darken all of them, it just makes them really nice and contrasty.  I think I will be posting some video of ideas with these combined the the silver tt.  Special introductory offer....$290 per set.  Speak now or forever hold your thingy.