MULTIPLICATION OF COINS.
As may be seen in the section in [Fig. 3], the tray has a double bottom, forming an interspace a little wider than the thickness of one of the coins, and which is divided breadthwise into two equal compartments by a partition, B. These two compartments are closed all around, save at the ends of the tray, where there are two apertures, A and C, that in length are double the diameter of the coins. In this interspace are concealed fourteen coins, seven on each side. When the contents of the tray are emptied into the hand of a spectator, the coins concealed in one of the compartments drop at the same time ([Fig. 2]). The operator then takes the tray in his other hand, and thus naturally seizes it at the end at which the now empty compartment exists, and this allows the seven coins that are contained in the other compartment to join the first ones, when the latter are rapidly emptied into the hands of the spectator for the second time.
A square tray, with a double bottom divided into four compartments by divisions running diagonally from one corner to another, would permit of increasing the number of coins four times.
Let us say, however, that skillful prestidigitateurs dispense with the double bottom. They hold the coins sometimes under the tray with their fingers extended, and sometimes on the tray, under their thumbs, and renew their supply several times from secret pockets skillfully arranged in various parts of their coats, where the spectators are far from suspecting the existence of them.
MAGIC COINS.
The street venders of Paris have for some time past been selling to pedestrians a coin that can be made to enter an ordinary wine bottle. This coin is a genuine ten centime piece, but, when it is handled, it is found that it bends exactly like the leaves of a dining-room table. Amateur mechanics, clock-makers, and copper turners can easily manufacture similar ones. The process is as follows: