Transient absorption and two-step laser-induced fluorescence studies of coumarin (CM), 7-hydroxy-4- methylcoumarin (7HMC) and 7-diethylamino-4-methylcoumarin (7DAMC) were performed to determine PHI-ts, the yield of T2 --> S1 ISC. PHI-ts was measured to be 8.4 X 10(-4) and 1.4 X 10(-3) for 7HMC and 7DAMC, respectively. The results can be rationalized by the proposed mechanism incorporating T(n-pi*) --> S(pi-pi*) ISC.