Here is an excellent and impressive routine which is a great one to work in a bar or restaurant – anywhere that there will be a candle or someone with a lighter or a box of matches.

It does require a prop (some flash paper, details of where to purchase this at the end) and a little skill with sleight-of-hand and misdirection. It will take you a little practice to get this right but your efforts will be well rewarded. This gets outrageous reactions every time.

The Effect

You ask someone if you can borrow a coin, any coin will do but the bigger the better. You ask the spectator to examine the coin and declare what kind of coin it is, the date and so on. Whilst he is doing that, you take out your pocket book and tear a leaf out. You then ask for the coin, which you hold up and fold neatly into the paper so that it is entirely enclosed in a small packet. You hold the wrapped coin in your right hand for everyone to see and then pass it to your left hand, handing it to another spectator to check that they can still feel the coin inside. Once this is verified, you take the coin back, pinching the packet, in full view, between your index finger and thumb. Now you draw the candle closer to you, or ask someone to make a flame with a lighter or to strike a match. If you don’t have a candle in a suitable holder, then you can pull an empty wine glass or other object from the table towards you, ‘to catch the coin if I drop it.’ You then bid your audience to watch carefully. Now you put the wrapped coin into the flame. There is a sudden flash of coloured light and…your hand is empty, both coin and wrapper have vanished!

Now, as the astonishment clears, folk will want to know what happened to the coin – especially the person you borrowed it from! You reassure them that you have not lost the coin forever and invite the original owner of the coin to lift up the candle holder/glass/other object. When they do so, to their astonishment, they will find their coin sitting there safe and sound! You can make this more impressive by getting the owner to sign or mark the coin in some way at the outset so that there is no doubt whatever that the coin belongs to them.

So how do you achieve this remarkable effect?

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The secrets are quite simple but will require patience to practice, especially the misdirection which is the heart and soul of how this trick works.

Whilst your spectator is examining the coin and describing it and all eyes are on him including your own your hands, as if unconsciously, reach into your pocket to take out your pocket book and seemingly tear a sheet from it. In fact what you are taking out is a piece of flash paper of an appropriate size that you have concealed there in readiness.

Making nothing of the paper at all, neither giving it particular attention nor speaking about it, keeping all concentration on the coin, you perform the ‘coin fold’ which is a special way of wrapping a coin in a piece of paper so that it appears to be entirely enclosed but actually has an ‘escape’. You can learn the fold here.

So now you have the coin, borrowed from and signed by the spectator, wrapped in a piece of flash paper. You show it to the audience in the right hand and then pass the over to the left hand. This movement is entirely justified as you are handing the packet to the person on your left to feel for the coin. Once the spectator has confirmed the presence of the coin in the packet, you direct your eyes to the object on the table that you wish to use and request a light and so on. Under cover of this and entirely naturally, you pass the packet back to the right hand but as you do so, you allow the coin to make its ‘escape’ into the palm of the left hand.

As you draw attention back to the coin packet, which everyone unquestioningly assumes it still holds the coin, you perform the final ‘sleight’. That is, without looking, keeping your eyes (and everyone else’s on the coin packet with the term ‘watch this!’, you almost ‘unconsciously’ adjust the position of your chosen object and as you do so, insinuate the stolen coin underneath it, much in the fashion that you might if performing the cup and balls.

The rest is pure showmanship. The paper flashes and dissolves to nothing and the coin is discovered where it could not possibly be!

IMPORTANT NOTE take very careful note of the directions for the misdirection in this trick as getting that right is ESSENTIAL to getting this to work.

You can buy flash paper here: Buy Flash Paper

All the best with your magic!

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