Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

by Professor Hoffmann

This illusion is produced as follows:—When you breathe upon the substitute coin, you naturally turn the left hand palm upwards. In the act of taking that coin in the right hand, which you do with the hands in the position depicted in [Fig. 69], you drop the genuine coin, which was previously palmed in the right hand, into the left, the position of the hand concealing it from the audience. After a momentary pause, you close the left hand, and hold it extended about level with your eyes. At each of the words, “One, two, three,” you make a slight motion of the right hand towards it, and at the word “Pass,” palm the coin by means of Pass 1, at the same time making a half turn of your body to the left, opening the left hand, and pointing with the index finger of the right hand to the coin lying therein. While it is being examined for the mark, you drop the substitute, which remains palmed in your right hand, into the pochette on that side, and bring up your hand empty.

Having proceeded thus far, borrow a second florin, but without in this case suggesting that it should be marked, breathe upon it, and lay it with that first used upon the table. Now with your right hand take up one of the coins, and by Pass 1 pretend to transfer it to the left, really retaining it in the palm of the right hand. Then take up the second coin between the fingers and thumb of the right hand, and announce that you are about to make the coins, which you now hold in each hand, come together. Holding your arms well apart, you make a motion with the left hand as if throwing something towards the right, at the same moment saying as before, “One, two, three! Pass!” and making the two coins in the right hand come together with an audible chink. You then open the hand, and show that the left is empty, and that both of the coins are together in the right hand.

You continue, “You all think you know how that was done, I dare say. You imagine, no doubt, that the money was merely thrown from one hand to the other with extreme rapidity. ‘The quickness of the hand deceives the eye,’ as Shakspeare (or somebody else) says. I will therefore show you the same experiment in another form in which you will find that no such solution is admissible. I will pass the money right through this table, which is, as you see, pretty solid. The quickness of the hand would not be of much use in this case. I take one of the coins in the left hand, as before.”

Here, however, you introduce a feint. Taking up the coin in the right hand, you transfer it to the left, but purposely do it with a pretended awkwardness, and hold the right hand afterwards rather stiffly, so as to lead the spectators to believe that you have really retained the coin in the right hand. To do this cleverly will require considerable practice, but it will by no means be labour lost, as feints of this kind are of frequent use.

The spectators, delighted to have, as they imagine, caught you tripping, are sure to exclaim that the coin is still in your right hand. “Surely, ladies and gentlemen,” you say, with an injured air, “you don’t think that I would avail myself of such a transparent artifice. See for yourselves!” opening your hands. “I won’t ask you to apologize, but pray give me a little more credit for the future. Come; we will have no mistake about it this time.” Take the florin between the finger and thumb of the left hand, and, by means of the tourniquet or pincette, appear to transfer it to the right. Pick up the second coin with the left hand, and place that hand under the table, holding the closed right hand above it. Say “Pass!”, open the right hand, show it empty, and at the same moment chink the two florins together in the left hand, and bring them up for inspection.

Looking around you, you continue, “I am afraid you are only half convinced; some of you look incredulous still. Come, we will try the experiment once more, and we will see whether you can find me out this time. As before, I take one coin in each hand.” This time you actually do so. You again pass your left hand under the table, detaching in its passage the third florin, which you had previously stuck to the under side of the table, but taking care that the two do not prematurely jingle together. Then, holding the other florin with the fingers of the right hand, which should be held palm downwards about a foot above the table, make Pass 1 with that hand, thus bringing the coin into its palm, and at the same time chink the other two coins in the left hand, and bring them up for examination. One of them, in this instance, is a substitute, and therefore, in the unlikely event of the audience insisting that the trick should be performed with marked coins, this last act must be omitted.

With a regular conjuring-table, the trick might be made even more surprising, from the facilities which the servante would afford for getting rid of and regaining the coin. But even if you habitually use such a table, it is better not to avail yourself of it for this purpose. The trick is, in any shape, too minute for stage performance, and in a drawing-room it is apt to draw special attention to the table, which in the case of a trick-table is a little embarrassing.

To rub One Sixpence into Three.—This is a simple little parlour trick, but will sometimes occasion great wonderment. Procure three sixpences of the same issue and privately stick two of them (as directed for the florin in the last trick) with wax to the under side of a table, at about half an inch from the edge, and eight or ten inches apart. Announce to the company that you are about to teach them how to make money. Turn up your sleeves, and take the third sixpence in your right hand, drawing particular attention to its date and general appearance, and indirectly to the fact that you have no other coin concealed in your hands. Turning back the table-cover, rub the sixpence with the ball of the thumb backwards and forwards on the edge of the table. In this position your fingers will naturally be below the edge. After rubbing for a few seconds, say, “It is nearly done, for the sixpence is getting hot;” and, after rubbing a moment or two longer with increased rapidity, draw the hand away sharply, carrying away with it one of the concealed sixpences, which you exhibit as produced by the friction. Pocketing the waxed sixpence, and again showing that you have but one coin in your hands, repeat the operation with the remaining sixpence.

The Multiplication of Money.—This is an old and favourite trick. It may be performed with shillings, pence, or florins, as may best suit your convenience. Whichever you use (we will suppose florins), you prepare for the trick by secretly palming in the right hand such number (say three) as you intend to magically add. Advancing to the audience, you beg the loan of ten or a dozen florins (the precise number is immaterial), at the same time requesting some one of the company to collect them, and bring them to you. He collects, we will suppose, twelve. You request him to count them openly upon the table, that all may be able to verify their number. This being done, you invite a second person also to step forward and assist. Picking up from the table the same number of coins as you have concealed in your palm, you give them to one of the two persons (whom we will call A) to hold. Then, taking up the remaining coins, you request the second person (whom we will call B) to take charge of them. When he holds out his hand to receive them, you let fall with them the palmed coins, so that he really receives twelve, though he believes that he has only nine. You make him close his hand, and hold it high above his head. You then ask A for the coins you entrusted to him. On his returning them to you, you take them between the second finger and thumb of the left hand, and pretend by the tourniquet to transfer them to the right, really getting rid of them at the earliest opportunity on the servante, or into one of your pochettes. The audience believe that the three coins are in your closed right hand. You announce that you are about to pass them invisibly into the hand of B, and after the necessary amount of magical gesture, you open your hand, and show that they have vanished; and B, on examining his stock, finds that the supposed nine have increased to twelve.

It is a very good plan, in performing this trick, for the performer himself to collect the coins from the company in a plate, the coins to be added being held in the same hand which carries the plate, when, the thumb being naturally above and the fingers below, the coins are effectually concealed. After the coins have been counted, the performer, taking the plate in the other hand, pours them from it into the hand which already holds the concealed coins, thus bringing them together easily and naturally.