Euro Falle 06 (La Luna) Wooden Puzzle

The Euro Falle 06 is the latest instalment of  the line of Euro Falle series of coin puzzles. The primary object of each puzzle is to remove a coin “locked” inside the puzzle. Like it previous cousins, the Euro Falle 06 puzzle is the design of Jurgen Reiche and manufactured by wooden puzzle maker Siebenstein-Spiele. The difficulty level of each puzzle varies and all the mechanisms are, as far as I am aware of, different.

I received the  Euro Falle 06 courtesy of Allen Stein during the IPP37 Puzzle Exchange in Paris this past August. This puzzle is shaped like a crescent moon, with the silhouette of a man’s face. Hence the alternative name of La Luna. The puzzle measures about 10.5cm x 8cm x 2.5cm. It is made up of layers of laser cut wood glued and held together by two screws. A top-plate made of acrylic covers a Euro 20 cent coin inside its own recess. On the back is a Euro copper 1 cent coin which is held within its own little hole. Quality of construction and finish is very good and the puzzle feels very thick, heavy and solid. There are identification marks and etchings  on both sides of the puzzle and the detailing is decent.   The object as mentioned is to remove the 20 cent coin from its slot. I guess you could consider it as a wooden puzzle box, just shaped differently.

An initial inspection would seem to suggest that it is impossible to remove the coin, there are no visible exits and all the layers are screwed and glued tight…but then again, there is often a hidden trick to it. Except sadly to say that I wasn’t able to discover it. My other experience with an earlier Euro Falle puzzle was the Euro Falle 03, co-incidentally also an exchange puzzle from Allen two years back at IPP35 in Canada. Now with that one I didn’t have much problem.  The current puzzle I had a lot of problems and after several days of play, I still got nowhere with it. I tried all sorts of stuff, the usual tapping, shaking and of course tried to figure out if the 1 cent coin had anything to do with the solve. In my mind, I had a rough idea of how the puzzle functioned but it was the execution which got the better of me. Nothing seemed to work and I promptly shot an email to Allen asking for a clue. He did come back with an explanation which I still couldn’t grasp (on hindsight, my own inability to understand) and I asked him to clarify.  Allen decided to send over the solution instead.

I wasn’t too surprise when I saw the solution. I just didn’t execute the critical move correctly. With the solution in sight, I solved the Euro Falle 06 in a jiffy. The mechanism has a very neat trick to it I would say that the Euro Falle 06 may even come under the class of Sequential Discovery puzzles, which requires a puzzler to find and use certain tools (that come with the puzzle) to solve it. Can’t say anymore without spoilers. The entire solve takes about 5 steps. But they are not easy steps, again depending on who is solving it. This is one of those puzzles that if you can figure out step 1, the critical step, the rest becomes fairly easy. Unfortunately I was stuck at step 1 for the longest time.