"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