Learn Coin Magic Tricks > Palm and Pass Fourty Coins

Palm and Pass Fourty Coins

The above trick of the author's is in all seriousness described in a certain " Serio-Comic " Coin-Trick book as being "simple enough" if you do this and do that, etc. No greater mistake was ever made, dear reader, and to conclusively prove this to you the writer may tell you that innumerable imitators for the purpose of performing this feat have a wire, 2 to 21/2 inches in length, soldered in a perpendicular position to the middle of a half-dollar. This lies with thirty or forty half-dollars on the table. These latter coins have in each case a small hole drilled through the center, and in gathering them up they are each threaded on the wire attached to the trick coin. It is then, of course, an exceedingly easy matter to palm them as none of the coins can slip owing to the wire.
Now to describe the correct method as employed by the author. The pile of thirty to forty coins is taken between the fingers in exactly the same manner as described in "The Elusive Pass." The right hand now makes a motion of passing the coins into the left, but in reality the two fingers holding the coins bend round and palm them in the right hand, in the position shown in Fig. 34, the left hand closing at the same time and the right hand keeping in an -upright position pointing at the left. The left hand is now shown empty. The right hand can be brought down to hang in a natural position by slightly bending the third finger round on to the top of the coins, which keeps them from falling, and the same can be produced in any manner the performer desires.

The author's favorite method is to produce them in a shower from under the vest. This is accomplished in the following manner : As the right hand (containing the coins) lifts up the edge of the vest with the first finger and thumb, the third finger, which it will be remembered is supporting the coins, pushes them under the vest. The stomach is now expanded and the hand can almost be withdrawn, and by gradually drawing in the abdomen the coins escape a few at a time and fall into the right hand, which is waiting to receive them. In connection with the above the following line taken from Die Zauberwelt, of 1st June of this year, illustrates what can be attained by practice:
"Mr. Downs has reached the highest degree of "perfection that could possibly be attained, or "ever will be attained, in this special branch of "palming coins."