On a small tray or salver place a number of counters, gilt in imitation of sovereigns (these counters may be purchased at a very small cost), and ask of the audience if some one of their number will kindly give permission to have the coins passed into his hands or pockets. Several of those present will doubtless volunteer the necessary permission, but the performer may then protest that one will be sufficient to show his power, and however much of a wizard he may be, he yet cannot endow all present with unlimited wealth. The conjurer may further remark that he will be open and above board, that he will pass coins from himself to some one of the audience unseen, and without the knowledge of that one himself. The performer will do well to select for the trick some person whose countenance indicates an easy disposition, and such an one should be invited to take from the tray a handful of the coins. This having been done, the remainder of the counters should be emptied from the tray on to the table. The person who has taken the handful of coins should next be asked to count them, and the performer at the same time must approach him, with the empty salver, carefully held between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand, in order that the coins, as they are counted, may be placed therein. It may here be observed that in the right hand and underneath the salver the performer should have concealed a small number of similar coins or counters; for convenience of illustration we will say seven. These counters may very easily be concealed from sight, inasmuch as the three last fingers which are to hold them will be naturally covered by the tray. As the assisting spectator--who, by the way, should be no confederate--counts the coins one by one, repeat after him the numbers as they are named, to prevent any mistake or misunderstanding, until he has finished, having reached, we will suppose, _twenty-two_. He should now be requested to be good enough to take in one of his hands these twenty-two pieces, and the performer, suiting the action to the word, will here pour the twenty-two coins or counters into his own right hand, where they may be made to imperceptibly mingle with the seven already concealed there, as before mentioned, and at once the whole twenty-nine should be handed to and placed boldly into the offered hand of the spectator. As a matter of experience, it will be found that seven coins so added to twenty-two will not be detected; but as a further precaution, and to prevent the possibility of the counters being again numbered, ask the assisting spectator to keep the hand holding the coins as tightly closed as possible, and in the other hand to hold the salver, in order still further to give his assistance and to prove that the salver has nothing to do with the deception.