I'm not familiar with shells, definately wanting to buy one,

but what'st the differnece between the two?

One's expanded and one's not.

Now, aren't you glad you asked?


(An expanded shell fits over normal coins. A non-expanded coin requires a matching cut down coin for it to fit over. Nearly all shells sold are expanded shells)

The unexpanded shell has no distortion to the face. If you place it beside a regular coin, you will see no difference. The advantage to this is, it looks just like a regular coin, absolutely no distortion. It's very crisp looking. The disadvantage is you have to get the matching coins remilled to fit the shell which is expensive if money is an issue. The remilled coins are slighly smaller to fit the unexpanded shell, but no need to worry about the spectators noticing. You can't use this shell with any other regular coins, it must always be used with the remilled coins.

The expanded shell does have a slight distortion to the face. If you would place this beside a regular coin, for awhile, it probably would be noticed, because of its slight distortion and size. It is slightly bigger than a regular coin. This would be the disadvantage, however, you most likely won't place the expanded shell and the regular coin right beside each anyway, at least not for long, so it probably won't be noticed. But the advantage is you only need one expanded shell and can use any other regular coins with this shell. It's more versatile.

So both shells have a plus and minus. You just have to see which works for you.

For general purpose work, the expanded shell is better. To minimize the visual difference requires some extra work. Custom coin gaff makers are good at this, and you can hardly tell the difference, but it'll cost you at least twice the price of a magic shop shell.

Start with a Johnson brand shell. If you like it, and really feel the need, then you can upgrade to the custom stuff.

I see,

I had no idea that there were two types of shells, I've heard really bad reviews of Tango.

I'm just a hobbyist, but what do the majority of people buy when it comes to shell companies? Kueppers or Johnson?

Johnson is the best mass produced coin, but if you get serious then you can get some custom from Todd Lassen or Jamie Schoolcraft

What's the difference between an expanded shell and a two sided expanded shell?