left hand and one which was already there.
If the moves are made in a natural, unhurried manner, it should appear that you merely showed two coins in your left hand, then tossed them into your right hand to show them to the spectators on the right. This is a convincing method of retaining an extra coin while apparently calling attention to the fairness of the procedure.
For the sake of clarity the moves have been described with three coins, but any small number above this amount will work just as well.
Several tricks and routines in the following pages depend partially or entirely upon this switch for their accomplishment.
ONE-HAND SWITCH
Although this one-hand switch is usually made secretly while attention is on the other hand or directed elsewhere, it can be executed openly during some natural gesture or movement of the hand, once it has been completely mastered.
Suppose you have just borrowed a half dollar and wish to exchange it for one of your own which you have finger palmed in your right hand. Proceed as follows: Take the borrowed coin between the tips of your right first two fingers and thumb, Bobo Switch, Fig. 1. Now while you pick up some object with your left hand, or make a gesture with that hand, drop your right hand to your side and switch one coin for the other in the following manner: With the tip of the forefinger, slide the borrowed coin along the inside of the thumb, Fig. 1, to the thumb crotch, where it is thumb palmed, Fig. 2. Now place the tip of the thumb on top of the finger palmed coin and push it to the tips of the first two fingers. Then allow the thumb palmed coin to drop to finger palm position. At the completion of these moves you will have the spectator’s coin finger palmed and your own visible at the tips of the first two fingers and thumb in exactly the same position as formerly occupied by the borrowed coin, Bobo Switch, Fig. 1
The switch, which takes only a moment to make, can be executed while you turn to the right to address the spectators on that side, or during any other natural action.
SHAW-JUDAH COIN SWITCH
Quite often the trick at hand requires that a borrowed coin be switched for one of your own, then your own kept in plain view while you do something else with the borrowed one—like secretly loading it into some apparatus or a spectator’s pocket (see In a Spectator’s Pocket, page 111). This switch of many uses was shown to me by Stewart Judah, who in turn credits it to Allan Shaw.
Besides a coin like the one you intend to borrow, you will require a regular glass goblet. Have the glass on the table and a half dollar classic palmed in your right hand. Ask for the loan of a half dollar and request that it be marked for future identification. While this is being done, pick up the glass by its stem, with the right hand. As you approach the spectator, transfer the goblet to your left hand, then take the marked coin between the tips of the first two fingers and thumb of the right hand and immediately toss it into the glass. This is what you seem to do. Actually you throw your own coin from the palm, Fig. 1, and retain the borrowed one hidden behind the curled fingers after the fashion of The Bobo Switch. The instant the coin arrives in the glass, rattle it and thumb palm the borrowed coin, Fig. 2.
The exchange is not suspected because every move appears fair and natural. The sound of the coin clinking in the glass adds greatly to the illusion and automatically directs the spectators’ attention there. To the spectators it appears that you merely took the borrowed coin with your right hand and tossed it into the glass.
The glass containing the duplicate coin is placed in full view and the borrowed coin is secretly loaded into the piece of apparatus the trick requires. Later in the routine the duplicate coin is taken from the goblet and vanished, and the borrowed coin produced according to the trick at hand.
The spectators believe they see the borrowed half dollar right up to the last minute. Little do they realize that subterfuge entered into this part of the trick!
THE CLICK PASS
Here are two sleights which aid in accomplishing numerous effects. Although both moves appear the same, the results differ slightly. Method (a) is the brainchild of Chester Woodin; the originator of (b) is unknown.
Effect (a): Two half dollars are on the table. The performer picks up one with his right hand, places it in his left hand, and closes his fingers over it. He takes up the second coin with his right hand and drops it into his left hand, where it is heard to strike the first coin. When the left hand is opened it holds only one coin; the other is shown in the right.
(b) This action appears the same as described above, but the results differ slightly. In this case when the left hand is opened it is empty. The right hand opens and displays the two coins.
Method (a): After showing the two coins on the table, pick up one with the right hand and apparently place it in the left, but really retain it in the right hand in the regular palm position. (See Standard Vanish, page 55.) Left hand is closed. The second coin is picked up by the fingers and thumb of the right hand, which seem to deposit it in the left hand. The left hand opens to receive it, but at the moment of the pretended deposit the coin in the right hand is released, and as it falls into the left hand it strikes the other coin in the process, Fig. 1. The right fingers then press the second coin into the palm, where it is retained.
When the first coin strikes the second coin, as it falls into the left hand, it makes a clink which simulates the sound one coin makes on being dropped onto another. The illusion is so perfect it fools the eye and the ear. Apparently the two coins are in the left hand. Open the left hand showing one coin, then open the right to show the other coin.
(b) The two coins are on the table. Pick up one coin with the right hand, apparently place it in the left, but palm it in the right. Left hand closes as if it held the coin. Take up the second coin with the right hand and repeat the previously described maneuver of apparently placing the coin in the left hand, but, at this moment it is palmed in the right hand and strikes the coin already there, Fig. 2, creating the illusion, by sound, of falling on top of the coin supposedly held in the left hand. Close the left hand again, both coins being palmed in the right hand. Wave right hand over left, snap right fingers, close right hand and hold it some distance away from the left. Open the left and show it empty. Open the right hand and show both coins. The halves have traveled from hand to hand.
The performer apparently places the coins in his left hand, but, with the aid of either of these two passes he can retain one or both coins in his right hand. Although described as tricks, these moves are more effective when used secretly in other routines, several of which
