Okito Coin Box

A versatile coin magic prop. Can be used to make coins vanish, appear, multiply, travel, etc. The prop itself is ungimmicked and examinable.

Invented by Theo Bamberg (also known as Okito) some time around 1911¹at his magic shop in New York City.

His partner Joe Klein, who suffered from indigestion, had a pill box full of pills. One day, while Theo was idly toying with one of the boxes, he discovered that the lid would fit on the bottom as well as the top. He started using this idea to make the pills disappear and reappear elsewhere. Theo then conceived the idea of making the box a size to fit a fifty-cent coin and the coin box was born.

The boxes were manufactured by Roterberg, Yost and Company, Sam Bailey, W.D. LeRoy, and Martinka and Company.

¹One of the first explaination of this box was in The Magic Wand, Vol. 5, No. 49, sept. 1914, page 30, entitled A Novel Coin Box but not attributed to Okito.

Variations

Variations of the coin box, both gimmicked and those that can be switch in for a kicker ending include

• Boston Box (not invented by George Boston because first explained in Discoverie of Witchcraft (1584)) - has a recessed bottom which allows it to appear full after a steal is made.
• German Box - a Boston Box without a lid
• Kalmer Box - a German Box with a hold cut in the bottom, large enough to insert the tip of your finger. Using a gimmicked coin, you could still show the hole in the box when on your palm, even though a coin was in the recessed bottom.
• Slot Box - an internally modified Okito Box which can hold back a coin. David Roth popularized it in the 1980s.
• Solid Box - A solid Okito box. Also called the Plug box.
• O-Korto Box - Created by Milt Kort, a box with smaller opening so that coins will not fit in it.
• No Bottom Box - no top or bottom (e.g. a ring).
• Chop Box - Modified with a Chop Cup gimmick.
• Clear Box - Transparent, so the coins can be seen in the box.
• Bernard Box - Gaffed box with a movable bottom so that the box can be secretly flipped over and still appear upright. Invented by Bobby Bernard and Patrick Page. It was later re-released as the "Beyond Okito" or "BO" box.
• Al-'N-Nate Box - Popularized by Al Baker and Nate Leipzig, it has a hole in the bottom similar to the Kalmer Box (fully described in J. B. Bobo's Modern Coin Magic).
• Paul Fox Coin Boxes = Two boxes, with one having a recessed bottom and the other having a thicker bottom, thus both hold the same number of coins (described in J. B. Bobo's Modern Coin Magic).

Commercial versions

• Aqua-Okito Box by Eddie Gibson
• Beyond Okito Box (BO-Box) by Definitive Magic (gimmicked, not examinable)
• Buddha Boxes by Chazpro
• David Roth Boxes
• Dragon Boxes by Dr. Bob Dogget
• Duvivier Coin Box by Dominique Duvivier
• "O" Kito Box by Dean Dill and manufactured by Jamie Schoolcraft Precision Magic
• Star Okito Box by Viking Manufacturing
• T.C. Coin Box at Hank Lee's Magic Factory
• Mojo Boogie Boxes by Bob Farmer - set of 3 aluminum Okito boxes.

References

• Modern Coin Magic (1952) and New Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo, Chapter X, 1966.
• David Roth's Expert Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman, 1985.
• http://magicref.tripod.com/magref/artokito.htm