History Main / CoinOnAStringTrick

'''Moseby:''' OK, I know it was one of you two, and since I don't know which one, the game room is off limits to the both of you! ''(leaves)''\\

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In the episode "Krusty Krab Training Video", archival footage shows a young Mr. Krabs using the coin-on-a-string trick method on a vending machine.

'''Moseby:''' OK, I know it was one of you two, and since I don't know which one, the game room is off limits to the both of you!\\

'''Moseby:''' OK, I know it was one of you two, and since I don't know which one, the game room is off limits to the both of you!//

* The Panello Brothers in ''Film/GoWest1940'' manage to con Quale out of 9$ by giving him a 10$ bill on a string when they buy a 1$ hat off of him. They even repeat the gag when he tries selling him a poorly-made jacket.
* In ''The Black Spider-Knight Leopold XVII'', to take a chance at slaying a dragon[[note]]actually an enormous sentient truck[[/note]] the eponymous knight needs to go through an automatic toll booth first, and the fee is a pocket of gold coins. Jamming a sword in the money slot doesn't help because it has apparently been built to withstand this kind of abuse from this setting's [[DesignatedHero knights]], so Leopold XVII tries this trick. The string is immediately cut by built-in automatic scissors.

* The ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOfZackAndCody'' episode "Rumors" opens with a revelation that Zack has been using this trick:

-->'''Moseby:''' I have it from a reliable source that a little boy who was about your height and your hair color was seen in the game room tampering with the games and playing for free.
-->'''Cody:''' Well, it wasn't me!
-->'''Zack:''' You know, Mr. Moseby, you can't believe every rumor you hear.
-->'''Moseby:''' OK, I know it was one of you two, and since I don't know which one, the game room is off limits to the both of you!//
-->'''Cody:''' This stinks! Now I can't go in there, and I've been saving up my quarters.//
-->'''Zack:''' You know, Cody, you wouldn't have to save up your quarters if you just used mine. ''(pulls a coin-on-a-string out of his pocket)''//
-->'''Cody:''' So it was you.//
-->'''Zack:''' Well, duh! It wasn't you! Boy, smart people are dumb.//

%% * The ''Escape the Phone Booth'' flash game

-->'''Moseby:''' I have it from a reliable source that a little boy who was about your height and your hair color was seen in the game room tampering with the games and playing for free.//
-->'''Cody:''' Well, it wasn't me!//
-->'''Zack:''' You know, Mr. Moseby, you can't
believe every rumor you hear.//

* ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood1973'': The Sheriff of Nottingham pulls a variation on this when Robin is disguised as a blind bigger: flipping a coin into Robin's cup with so much force that it bounces itself and the two coins already in the cup out, where he snatches them in mid-air.
%%* ''Animation/TreasureOfSwampCastle'': The guard is a victim of this trope used as bribery. Though it's done without string, two characters invoke this.

* ''Website/SCPFoundation'': Some of the experiments done on [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-261 SCP-261]] (a seemingly ordinary snack vending machine that dispenses random snack-type items ranging from mundane to bizarre) used a coin on a string. The machine at first responded by dispensing seemingly normal food items that caused the eater to promptly vomit them up, and eventually ended by simply dispensing a live grenade. The Foundation stopped testing the coin-on-a-string trick after that one.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In the ''Krusty Krab Training Video'' episode, a young Mr. Krabs uses coin-on-a-string trick method on a vending machine.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "The Big Problem" features this in an ImagineSpot Timmy has where he is an adult. One scene depicted in the sequence is his babysitter Vicky living on the streets now that he's too old to need her looking after her. Adult Timmy appears to put a coin into Vicky's begging cup, but then yanks the coin away by the string it's tied to and yells "Psyche!"

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': Some of the experiments done on [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-261 SCP-261]] (a seemingly ordinary snack vending machine that dispenses random snack-type items ranging from mundane to bizarre) used a coin on a string. The machine at first responded by dispensing seemingly normal food items that caused the eater to promptly vomit them up, and eventually ended by simply dispensing a live grenade. The Foundation stopped testing the coin-on-a-string trick after that one.

** WesternAnimation/ChowHound: A greedy bulldog, who had been bullying a cat and mouse to help him in his insatiable quest for all the meat (and gravy) in the world, uses a form of this – a "cat on a string," if you will – as the payoff of his scheme. Having held them hostage for weeks, the owners post "lost animal" ads in the newspaper, and when the dog collects the rewards (returning him in a trick bed), he yanks the cat away by yanking it by a string tied around his tail and sneaking away before the owners notice their cat is missing.

** Similarly in the 1939 [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Porky Pig]] cartoon "The Film Fan."

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1426189194023784500
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* One Creator/CarlBarks story features Donald Duck going to a valley to test echoes. His nephews set up a box where one can deposit a dime and expect an echo in exchange. The nephews just repeated whatever Donald said every time he put a dime in the box. It turns out that Donald was using the trick to get free echoes. They retaliate and eventually get the seven dimes.
* ComicBook/KidPaddle tries this trick along with a variation: small discs of ice of the same diameter as a coin.

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* In ''Film/RealGenius'', Creator/ValKilmer's character uses liquid nitrogen to freeze water into rods the diameter of a quarter, then slices off slugs with a cutting tool to feed the vending machine.

* Recruits to the [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork City Watch]] were once given a coin, the King's Shilling, and sworn in on it when they gave their oath of service. In modern times, however, the Watch has become so [[OddlySmallOrganization stingy and under-financed]] that (even though a shilling is no longer quite so much money[[note]]explained once by the shilling being a real gold coin worth considerably more than its nominal value[[/note]]) the officers have a shilling on a string to perform the tradition on the cheap. At one point, Vimes (masquerading as a transfer officer from another city) twits an officer by grabbing the coin before he can pull it back.

* Done in the 1937 short ''Magic on Broadway''. This was part of Paramount/Fleischer Novelty-Cartoon shorts which featured animation in part of it and live-action in the other half. The cartoon half of this entry has a slot-machine player cheating the machines in a penny-arcade by tying a string to the coin and pulling it out again. The machines get rather animated about being cheated and the petty-gambler receives some rough treatment.
** Similarly in the 1939 [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Porky Pig]] cartoon "The Film Fan."

* [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Looney Tunes and Merrie Meolidies]]:

* ''WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck'':
** His early films has him using this technique (a la Mr. Krabs) to economize at a fair.
** In ''WesternAnimation/ModernInventions'', he uses this technique to enter the Museum of Modern Marvels for free. In the climax of the short, he attempts this technique again to get a free haircut from a robotic barber chair but ends up getting a humiliating makeover.
** In "Donald's Happy Birthday", when Donald forces his nephews to put their allowance in a bank, one of the nephews tries to do this to keep his coin, but Donald was one step ahead of him and cuts the string with scissors.

* In the Warner Bros. cartoon short ''The Mouse that Jack Built'', the mouse played by Creator/JackBenny goes down to the cheese vault (counterpart to the money vault in the radio shows). He opens the first door by putting a coin on a string into a box, then pulling it up again. Since Jack Benny often played a cheapskate in his radio shows, this might have been to keep in character.
* A flashback on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' implies this helped Mr. Burns make his fortune.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'': Oscar Proud is cheap enough to do this to a ''[[KickTheDog sidewalk charity collector]]'' during a Christmas special. Penny isn't impressed.
* ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines'': In "Operation: Anvil," Dastardly relieves Muttley of his medal after he botches an operation to catch Yankee Doodle Pigeon. Muttley had a string tied to the medal, so as Dastardly walks off, Muttley yanks the medal back.
* The ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'' episode "Maximum Insecurity" had Leech use the coin-on-a-string trick to snag a free soda from a vending machine. PJ then runs into him and gets him mad by breaking the string and making him lose the coin it was tied to.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' episode "The Big Problem" features this in an ImagineSpot Timmy has where he is an adult. One scene depicted in the sequence is his babysitter Vicky living on the streets now that he's too old to need her looking after her. Adult Timmy appears to put a coin into Vicky's begging cup, but then yanks the coin away by the string it's tied to and yells "Psyche!"

* The ''Escape the Phone Booth'' flash game

** In WesternAnimation/ModernInventions, he uses this technique to enter the Museum of Modern Marvels for free. In the climax of the short, he attempts this technique again to get a free haircut from a robotic barber chair but ends up getting a humiliating makeover.