Ted’s 2 Copper 1 Silver Learning Page

https://www.tedssterlingmagic.com/product/2-copper-1-silver

Effect:  Your audience can inspect all the coins before and after the trick. It looks like real magic yet requires no difficult moves.  Two copper coins are held in one hand then change places with a half dollar held in your other hand.  This effect can be repeated several times.  Then finish the routine by making the copper coins change places with the half dollar in your pocket.

Preparation:  Examine the coins.  You will see that one of them is a gimmicked English Penny Shell with an insert.  The insert is a half dollar on one side and a Mexican Centavo on the other.  When the coins are nested and assembled, they can be show as a half dollar or an English Penny.  When separated, they can be shown as 2 coins, the English Penny, and the Mexican Centavo.  Besides the gimmicked coin there is a real English Penny and a Mexican Centavo, so you have a stack of 2 copper coins.  Place this stack in your coat pocket so they are easy to access.

Presentation:  Begin by telling your audience that you are going to perform an amazing trick and they will need to “Pay Attention.”  Stress that they “Pay Attention.” 

Using the 3 real coins, hand them out for examination and explain to the audience that what they have is an English Penny, a Mexican Centavo and a US Half Dollar.  Take back each coin one at a time and place them into your right palm.  Close your hand around the coins.  Turn your now closed fist so that your fingers are down.  Loosen you grip slightly on the coins so that you can reach into your left hand between your thumb and index finger with your right index finger and thumb.  Remove the half dollar and show it on the palm of your right hand.  Close your right hand.  Ask the spectator what coins are in each hand.  They should reply that there is one half dollar in your right hand and an English Penny and Mexican Centavo in your left hand.  Open your hands and show that they have answered correctly.

Now the magic:  Place all 3 coins back into your left hand as you did before.  This time remove the English Penny and Mexican Centavo, the 2 copper coins.  Put them into your right pocket (the same pocket that contains the gimmick coin set.)  Make is clear to the audience that you are putting these 2 coins into your pocket.  Ask the question again, “Where are the coins?”  When they respond that the half dollar is in your left hand, and the 2 copper coins are in your pocket, open your left hand and show the half dollar.  Also reach into your coat pocket and pick up the gimmicked coin set instead of the real coins. 

Place the Mexican Centavo insert in the center of your left palm, then the English Penny shell toward your fingers.  Overlap these 2 coins just enough so that they do not re-assemble.  Now put the half dollar on in the same manner, just slightly overlapping the English Penny toward your fingers.  Now all 3 coins should be in line with your fingers with the half dollar closest to your fingertips. 

Practice this next move and see what happens.  Close your left hand slowly and see that the Centavo nests and is covered by the English Penny shell. 

After closing your hand with the coin now nested inside, turn it palm down as before.  Reach into your loose fist again and take out the top coins.  This will be the now nested gimmick coin.  Reach into the closed fist and pull out the coins between the thumb and index finger with the thumb on top.  This makes it easier to then place the coins properly.  Turn your right palm up and position the gimmicked coin on your fingers.  Close your hand and turn it palm down.  This will put the gimmicked coins now English Penny side up.  Ask the question again “Where are the coins?”  This time the spectators are wrong.  They saw the half dollar in your right hand and will assume it is still there.  Open your left hand and show the real half dollar.  Also use your right thumb tip to separate the new nested gimmick.  Just slightly lift the English Penny shell off the Centavo insert.  (This move will take practice to do smoothly and quietly.)  Now twist your palm clockwise to an open position.  This move will take practice.  Keep your fingernails parallel with the floor.  You must open your hand and keep both coins always showing copper side up.  Now with both palms open, the spectator is fooled.

Take the now separate gimmick and pinch it between your right thumb and fingertips.  Place these now slightly overlapping coins onto the half dollar in your left hand as you did in the beginning.  Align the set of now 3 coins with the direction of you r fingers.  This sets you up to either repeat the previous move or go on.  By closing your left hand, you will re-assemble the gimmick.

To complete the trick, remove the gimmick set, now half dollar side up from your hand.  Place it in the pocket that contains the real English Penny and Mexican Centavo.  Ask the question again, “Where are the coins?”  This time when showing the real half dollar in your left hand, remove the real coins from your pocket and hand out all 3 for inspection. 

Your copper coins will naturally tarnish.  To polish your coins, use distilled vinegar and salt in a solution.  Dip them in and remove quickly.  Then rinse thoroughly in plain water.