"Coin In A Hat" (#136)

"COIN IN A HAT" (#136)

An old favorite is the trick in which the magician finds, with his finger tips, a coin which has been marked and then shaken up in a hat with a number of others.
Briefly the old method is this: A number of coins, say eight or ten half dollars or quarters are borrowed. One is chosen and marked by several spectators. As it is passed from hand to hand this coin becomes warm while the others lying on the table remain cold. The operator has merely to find the warm coin.
The new method

is even simpler. Cut tiny scrap of Scotch tape, the new adhesive

paper that is always ready for use without being moistened, and lay it on your table, adhesive side up. Borrow the necessary coins, half dollars or quarters, and put them on the table. Take any one and hand it out to be marked. This done, take it back and lay it on the scrap of Scotch tape, which adheres to it.
Borrow a hat and sweep the coins into it. Hand the hat to a spectator and let him shake it thoroughly, mixing the coins, then he holds the hat up high. It only remains for you to put your hand in, find the coin with the scrap of tape on it, scrape that off with your nail, and hand the coin to a spectator for identification.
Such are the bare bones

of the trick and, baldly presented, it is just another trick, but properly worked up it is quite effective. For instance, you may have the spectator who marked the coin hold your left hand and, when you have found it, pretend to have received a slight electric shock. Nine times out of ten the spectator will aver that he felt it too, particularly if at that moment you give his hand a little prick with the point of a pin which you hold between your fingers

"Hand Flip Coin Trick" (#76)

"Hand Flip" (#76)

THIS TAKES A TINY BIT OF PRACTICE

1. Lay two coins in the palms of your hands - the positions are very important! The coin in my left hand is right in the middle of my palm. The coin in my right hand is near my thumb.

2. In one quick motion, flip both hands over and slap them straight down onto the table. The coin in your right hand should get flicked across and under your left hand. The coin in your left hand should simply fall straight down.

3. Ask your audience where they think the coins are – they'll probably guess there's one under each hand. If you move your right pinkie finger a bit, people usually guess the coins are under your right hand – then you can reveal they are wrong!

4. Reveal both coins under your left hand. If you repeat the trick, be quick! Try not to let anyone notice the positions of the coins.

SECRET
The position of the coins in your palms makes this trick work. As you rotate your hands from "palms up" to "palms down", the coin in the centre of your palm stays put and falls straight down. But the coin near your thumb travels around the centre of your palm and gets catapulted towards the other hand. With a bit of practice, it is almost impossible to see this coin shooting across before you slap your hand down to cover it. The reason one of the coins gets flicked across is easy to understand if you imagine using a table tennis bat instead of your hand. Imagine laying one coin smack bang in the centre of one of a bat. As you rotate the bat, the coin rotates around its own centre too, but it does not get flicked away. If you lay the second coin right on the outside edge of the other bat, something quite different happens. This coin travels around the centre of the bat in a big semi-circle and if you rotate the bat quickly enough, it will get flicked away. How fast the coin gets flicked across depends on how far it is from the centre of your palm and the speed with which you flip your hands over.