Twenty Coin Trick

Palm five 10-cent coins in your right hand, ask members of the audience to lend you twenty 10-cent coins and display them on a plate. Take the coins from the plate with the right hand and mix them with the concealed five. Give them to a member of the audience to hold, and ask him to return five to you. He will obviously believe he is retaining only fifteen – although, of course, he has twenty. While the attention of the audience is distracted, palm another 10-cent coin in your right hand. Then ask someone else to hold the five coins, but actually give her six. Now ask her to return one coin to you. When you take the coin from her, remind her she has only four coins left. You can now proceed with the best part of the trick. Taking the one coin you have just received in your right hand, palm it and pretend to place it in the left. Then striking your left hand with the magic wand, order the coin to fly into the closed hand of the volunteer holding the five, or as she suppose, the four coins. When she opens her hand the coin will, of course, appears to have been transferred there, much to the amazement of your audience. Now, taking the five coins, make a more dexterous pass into the left hand, from where you order them to fly into the closed hand of the volunteer holding the supposed fifteen. When you ask for the return of the original twenty coins, the expression of surprise on his face should be reward enough! Executed with care and dexterity, this is one of the most effective coin illusions in any magician’s repertoire. But to be successful you will need to adept at the art of palming. It is also important that the volunteers holding the coins should be asked to keep their hands tightly closed and lifted above their heads, otherwise they may count the coins and expose you before the trick is finished.