He now asks the person holding the glass to take charge of the coin also. He is instructed to hold it (the glass disc) just over the glass, the four corners of the handkerchief hanging down around it, and at the word “three,” to drop it into the glass. The conjuror counts "one, two, three?" At the word three the supposed coin falls, and is heard to tinkle upon the glass.
Touch the glass through the handkerchief with your magic wand, and state that by the time you have counted three the half-crown will have dissolved. Count three very slowly, then the handkerchief is removed, the water is seen, but the supposed coin has vanished, for the disc, being of glass, lies quite invisible at the bottom; and if it fits the water may be poured away without the disc falling out, the thin layer of water remaining underneath it holding it by atmospheric pressure to the bottom of the tumbler. It is not worth while to do this unless some one challenges you to pour off the water, then the challenge should be accepted readily.
The conjurer should now pay back the half-crown, but it will assist the illusion if he pays it back with two shillings and a sixpence, or in some other coins, instead of in the form in which it was borrowed.
The Vanished Half-Crown.—The trick of the dissolved half-crown may be varied. In this case the coin should be marked by the owner. Upon finding it is not in the water when the handkerchief has been removed pretend to be anxious about its loss. Say you will pay it back in instalments, and offer a shilling towards it. When the money-lender tries to take the proffered shilling it vanishes too. This is managed by boring a hole in the shilling, tying some elastic through the hole, and stitching the other end of the elastic up your sleeve. Then as soon as you leave hold of the coin it darts back up your sleeve. “Has that gone too!” you exclaim. “Well, we must try to find that half-crown; perhaps it is in this ball of worsted,” you say, as you pick one from the table. Hand the ball of worsted to someone to examine and they declare that the coin is not in it. As you walk back to the table secretly exchange this ball for another. Now this other ball of worsted has been prepared in this way. It has been wound round a tin tube about three inches long, a tube through which half-a-crown may be passed. When you have the marked coin at the beginning of the trick you should have the ball of worsted in your pocket, and putting your hand there, should put the coin through the tube into the ball of worsted. Then take the tube away and press the ball into its proper shape. It is this ball that you now place in an empty glass, and giving the end of the worsted to some lady in the audience, ask her to unwind it. As she does so the half-crown will begin to rattle upon the glass.
Magic Florins.—Take four half sheets of note-paper from any table, and then borrow four florins; these florins you place upon a table about a foot apart, and gently lay the half sheets over each. You then take up one sheet and discover the florin underneath. Placing the paper on one side you take up the coin, and without touching, in some extraordinary way, make it pass through the next paper. You lift it, and sure enough, there lie two florins.
You then lift the third paper, to find the florin you placed there. Again, in the same mysterious manner you pass the coin through the paper. It makes no hole going through, but when the paper is lifted up there are the three of them.
Now you lift up the last piece of paper, thereby uncovering the last florin. Repeating the same process, you then request one of the audience to lift the paper, so that he or she may see that there is no deception. This being done, there lie the four florins as cosy as little fledglings in a nest.
The extreme simplicity of the trick is the most taking part of it.
And now to explain this seeming mystery.