A borrowed and marked half dollar is held in the performer's fist

His hand is covered with a handkerchief which is fastened around the wrist with a rubber band so that coin and hand are completely enclosed. In spite of all these precautions, the coin leaves the hand and travels invisibly through the air, and reappears in a hat on the other side of the room.

Borrow a hat (or use your own), and ask a spectator to make sure there is nothing in it. Then place it on the opposite side of the room.

Borrow a half dollar. If none of the small fry present are that well-to-do, lend them one of yours. Also hand out a soft pencil and ask that the coin be marked.

While the marking is being done, obtain another fifty-cent piece from your pocket and hold it finger-palmed in your right hand (fig. 3A). Take the marked coin in your left hand, close it, and say, "This marked coin is going to leave my hand and fly across the room into the empty hat. Would you like to see it go visibly or invisibly?"

They almost always want to see it go visibly, which is the reply you want. But if not, you say, "Let's do it both ways. When it goes visibly, it looks like this." Simply open your hand, pick up the coin with the right hand, walk across the room to the hat, and place the coin in it. Secretly leave the second coin there at the same time.

"That really isn't much of a trick, is it? Let's do it the hard way -- invisibly." Reach into the hat and remove only one coin, the unmarked duplicate. No one can tell at a little distance whether it is marked or not, and in any case you immediately place it in the left hand and close the fingers over it.

Bring out a handkerchief and throw it over the fist. As you cover your hand, turn it palm down. Grasp the outside edge of the handkerchief between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand, which you hold palm up. Pull the edge of the handkerchief in toward you and up against the wrist. As the right hand passes beneath the left, let the coin drop into the right hand (fig. 6). (In the photo the near edge of the handkerchief has been lifted to show what happens underneath.)

Ask a spectator to hold the handkerchief around your wrist so that your hand is completely enclosed. Put your right hand into your pocket and bring out a rubber band. Give it to the spectator and ask him to put it over your wrist around the handkerchief.

The trick, as far as you are concerned, is finished. Pretend to pluck an invisible coin from your right hand and throw it toward the hat. Ask the spectator to pull the handkerchief off your hand. Both handkerchief and hand are empty. Don't go near the hat yourself; have someone else go to it and remove the marked coin.

figure 6