After laying down the coin he takes the top card of the pack, and with it, unknown to the spectators, the overlay beneath it, and lowers them on to the coin.
“Notice particularly, please, where I have placed the coin, and notice too that I do not touch it again. I will now place two more cards, one on each side of the first one.” He does so, letting the spectators see clearly that there is nothing in the hand save the card itself, and then slowly lowering it exactly on to one of the two overlays on the table. “Now I make a few magnetic passes over the cards, so.” He waves his wand backwards and forwards above the cards, at a few inches’ distance.
“And now, where is the coin? Still under the middle card, you would say? You are mistaken.” He lifts that card lengthwise, leaving the overlay covering the coin; then replacing the card. “It is no longer there, you see. In point of fact it has passed under this card.”
He lifts one of the side cards breadthwise, the overlay coming with it, and exposes the coin beneath it. “Here it is, you see. We will try once more.” He replaces the card and then shows, in like manner, that the coin has passed to the card on the opposite side. After one or two transpositions have been shown, the audience being allowed to say under which card the coin shall appear, and the last shift having been to one of the side positions, the performer says: “I should like you to be satisfied that it is really the marked coin and no other, that wanders about in this way. I will ask the gentleman who lent it to me to verify his mark.”
He picks up from one of the side positions the coin last uncovered and brings it forward, but in transit “switches” it for the borrowed coin, which he has a moment previously picked up from its resting place behind the pack. It is, of course, this last which he offers for identification, again exchanging it for the substitute before replacing this in its former position. The final reproduction must be from under the centre card, the performer again ringing the changes before returning the coin to the owner. At the close of the trick all three cards are placed on the pack, the centre overlay going with them. The other two overlays are left on the mat, each still covering its own coin, and the whole being carried off together. If the mat is of the folding kind it can be closed before removal, effectually concealing the accessories used in the trick.
Some amount of skill will be found necessary to pick up the card with or without the corresponding overlay, as may be desired. The difficulty however speedily disappears with practice. On the other hand, the trick is well worth the trouble needed to master it, for if the spectators are convinced (as, given perfect execution, they should be) that it is really the borrowed coin which travels about as it appears to do, nothing short of genuine magic will furnish an adequate explanation.
The performer is of course by no means bound to adopt the mise en scène above suggested. If preferred, the patter might be based on a supposed plot between the two knaves to rob the queen, the coin representing the stolen property, secretly passed from the one to the other when either was accused of the theft. The story might conclude with an appeal by the queen to a benevolent magician, through whose good offices her property is brought back to its original position, and in due course restored to her. The touch of the mystic wand would naturally play an important part in effecting the restoration.