This trick requires considerable practice, but is a very effective one. Take the two coins in your right hand, and throw them repeatedly, one at a time, into the other hand until the audience begin to think it is a "sell." Then, offering your left hand (in which the coins are supposed to be) to some one, say: "Well, you try to do it." Open your hand, and the coins have disappeared.
EXPLANATION.--The last time you throw only one half-crown, and instead of throwing the second, bring the right hand down quickly, and at the same time jerk the coin in your left hand upwards into your right, and it will strike the coin retained there. The clink will be heard, and by closing your left hand quickly you will lead the company to suppose both coins are in that hand. Half-crowns are the best coins for the trick owing to their weight.
Request a member of the company (seated) to place a shilling or florin upon each knee, and cover them with his hands with his fingers stretched out. You then tell him, when you turn your back, to raise one of the coins and tap his head with it twelve times just above his ear; then replace it on his knee and cover it with his hands as before; and you will tell him, on examining the coins, which one he raised.
The examination of the coins has really nothing to do with the trick. All you have to do is to look at the person's hands; the blood leaves the hand that has been raised, and when it is again placed beside the other the difference in colour is most perceptible.
I have performed this trick hundreds of times in drawing-rooms, and it has never been detected, but created great surprise.
Stick a halfpenny (or a shilling) under the edge of a table secretly with a small piece of wax. Show another halfpenny to the company, and when it is returned to you, place it in front of you on the table while you turn up your sleeves. Then place the fingers of your left hand under the table, and with your right hand sweep the halfpenny on the table into your left, at the same time getting hold of the halfpenny under the table, taking care that one coin does not strike the other. Then place your right hand over your left, and pretend to rub the halfpenny the audience have examined very vigorously, and, showing both coins, say you have rubbed one halfpenny into two. You can improve on this trick by using four halfpence on the table and one stuck under the edge. Sweep two coins into your left hand, get possession of the stuck halfpenny, and close your hand. Hold it up, and say: "There are two halfpennies on the table, and I have two in this hand." Picking up the two halfpennies with your right hand, tell the company that you intend to pass one of them into the other hand. Then lay both hands flat on the table, lift your left hand, and show three halfpennies under it. Slide your right hand off the table, leaving one halfpenny behind, and carrying the second coin away with your fingers. As your hand leaves the table, press the halfpenny with your thumb against your two middle fingers, and nip it with your first and little fingers. Remove your thumb, and you will find you can hold it securely "palmed." Then with the right hand sweep the three halfpennies back into the left hand, at the same time letting the "palmed" coin fall with them. Close your fingers over them quickly, and picking up the remaining halfpenny from the table with your right hand, say: "I intend to make this halfpenny join its companions. One, two, three--go!"