A penny placed in a spectator's hand changes to a dime

Take several coins from your pocket and place them on your left palm. Pick up a dime, slide it with the thumb to the base of the right third and fourth fingers and close them over it. (This method of holding a coin concealed in the hand is called the finger palm and is shown in fig. 3A.) Now pick up one or two more coins in the usual manner, say, "We won't need these," and put them back in your pocket. But retain the dime in the finger palm.

Remaining in your left hand you should have a penny, either a quarter or a fifty-cent piece, and one or two other coins. Arrange these on the hand so that they can all be seen, but see that the largest coin is behind and slightly overlaps the penny (fig. 3B). Name each coin and ask a spectator to add them. "I have fifty cents, a penny, and two nickels. How much is that altogether?"

figure 3

When the spectator gives the answer, ask, "And if I take away a penny, what does that leave?"

As you say this you apparently pick up the penny with the thumb and first two fingers of your right hand. When your hand is above the penny, momentarily hiding it, your fingers push it back under the larger coin.

The child replies, "Sixty cents," and you say, "Very good. Now hold out your hand."

Place the tips of your right fingers (which the spectator thinks hold the penny) on his hand and open the third and fourth fingers, allowing the concealed dime to fall onto his palm. At the same time say, "Now close your hand tightly." Take your hand away just as he does this. He will feel the dime but think that he has the penny. Put all the other coins back in your pocket.

"Hold the penny tightly. I'm going to try to make it disappear at the count of three. Are you ready? It's still there? Good. One. Two. Three. Go! Do you still feel it? You do? Are you sure? That's funny. This has always worked before. Let me see it." He opens his hand and finds that the penny has changed to a dime.

There is one drawback to this trick -- the child always wants you to do it again. It's usually not wise to repeat the same trick immediately. So you proceed to do the trick that follows, making the dime disappear.