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Although the spectators are never conscious of the hands being in this position because there is no hesitation in the action, they are pictured in this position for clarity.
At this juncture the right hand moves inward toward the left shoulder and thence outward again, making a pass over the back of the left fist a couple of times. As the right hand moves back toward the body at the start of this action the coin is thumb palmed.
Going back to Fig. 4 you will observe that the half dollar is held by the thumb and middle finger of the right hand. In order to thumb palm the coin place the forefinger on top of it and remove the thumb, holding the coin between the first two fingers. These two fingers deposit it in thumb palm position as the hand swings inward and outward making the first pass over the left fist. Continue passing the right hand over the left fist a couple more times. Finally, diminish the passes, open the left hand and show that the coin has faded away.
A great many words have been necessary to describe this vanish which only takes a moment to perform and is not difficult once the exact mechanics are thoroughly understood.
THE SLIDE VANISH
JOHN MULHOLLAND
This sleight to cause a coin to disappear was devised by John Mulholland when he was about twelve years old. Because of the reliable peculiarity of the eye called retention of vision, the spectator “sees” the coin go into the hand and is very much surprised when the magician shows it isn’t there. The Slide Vanish has the added advantage of being a completely natural move.
This is the effect: The magician holds his right hand out flat to show a half dollar resting on the center of the palm. Tilting his hand he permits the coin to slide from the palm, down his fingers and into the cupped left hand held below to catch it. The left hand is closed about the half dollar and raised to shoulder height. After a rubbing movement of the fingers of the left hand, or with the pronouncement of the magic words, the hand is opened to show that the coin has disappeared.
The sleight depends upon the fact that a half dollar is of such size that it will wedge between the tips of the first and little fingers when those fingers are squeezed tightly against, and just a little above, the two middle fingers. By holding the fingers in this manner, a coin sliding from the palm toward the tips of the fingers will become wedged at the tips of the fingers. As the coin slides down the hand, which should not be tilted so much as to make the movement fast, the left hand is brought underneath and held like a cup. Just at the instant the coin has reached the position on the fingers where it will stay, turn the hand over so that the back is toward the audience. This is done by turning the wrist and in no other way changing the position of the hand. The turn over seems merely to be proof that the coin has left the hand. The instant the right hand is turned it is moved away from the left hand, which then closes “about the coin.” The left hand, by the way, should be held so that the palm almost touches the tips of the fingers of the right at the moment the right hand is turned over. The hands being that close together provide complete cover and hide the fact that the coin never goes into the left hand.
Once the left hand is closed the right hand can be dropped to the side. In that position the coin can be brought to the back of the hand so that the palms of both hands may be shown empty after the vanish has occurred. For those who do not back palm, it will be found that the coin is in a position to do the regular palm and, once done, the right hand can aid the disappearance by making passes toward the left hand.
THE ILLUSIVE COIN PASS
T. J. CRAWFORD in Greater Magic
This sleight was given the above title by John Northern Hilliard when he was preparing for T. Nelson Downs that magical classic, The Art of Magic, as the coin pass had been submitted to him without a name.
The pass is not one automatically acquired immediately after reading the instructions, but performers who have mastered it have found the effort to perfect it time well spent. It enables the performer to completely vanish a coin from the hand in which it was unmistakably placed. The spectator actually sees the coin lying in the palm of the left hand, yet when the hand is opened, the coin has apparently melted away. Nor is it limited to one coin. Several coins may be vanished singly.
The Method: The coins are picked up from the table, a coin rack, or from the palm of a spectator’s extended hand. With the sleeves up and the hands empty, the performer takes one coin between the thumb and index finger of the right hand, holding the coin as near the edge as possible. This scanty grip on the edge is important, as all the surface of the coin possible should be exposed and well polished coins should be used. Much of the effect is psychological and these details are helpful.
What actually happens is this: the coin is really placed in the palm of the left hand and, for a brief interval, the spectators see it lying there, but it is never released from the grip of the thumb and finger on its extreme edge. Strange as it may seem, this fact does not dawn on the spectator. To his eye the coin has either melted away or gone into a mysterious pocket in the palm of the left hand.
The timing at this stage is the vital element. The instant the coin is shown openly in the left palm, Fig. 1, the fingers of that hand begin to close over it, and when they have closed to the point of screening the coin from view, the middle, third and little fingers of the right hand are extended full length under the curved fingers of the left, Fig. 2. The three right hand fingers form a screen for the coin as the right hand moves away with it. Without this screen, there would be a ruinous flash of the bright coin, which is still held in its original position by the thumb and index finger, Fig. 3.
As the left hand is slowly closed and extended, and the eyes of the assembly are focused on that point, the fingers of the right hand are pushing the coin to a center palm. A momentary pause allows the situation to be absorbed, then follows the deliberate process of opening the left hand, showing back and front, with fingers wide apart. The coin is gone. And likewise, several coins are vanished one after the other.
The stack of coins in the left hand can be produced in a fan and showered into a glass after both hands have been shown empty by the change over palm, or transferred to the fork-of-thumb palm (See The Downs Palm, page 25), and after both palms have been seen empty, reproduced from the air one at a time.
As a vanish for a single coin, this is one of the best, and is only equaled by a similar vanish by that modern master of subtlety, Dai Vernon, which is simply titled A Coin Vanish.
A COIN VANISH
Reprinted from Greater Magic
Hold the coin between the extreme tips of the right thumb and first finger, allowing as
