Fickle Nickel: Vanishing Nickel
by John Cornelius and Ronnie Gann

This is as close to real magic you can get!

This is the coin trick that Siegfried (of Siegfried and Roy) performed on the World's Greatest Magicians nationwide television show. It was also presented by Doug Henning on one of his specials.

This one you are just not going to believe! And why not? Because most of you saw it performed on one of the Doug Henning specials, and just didn?t believe it then! Why not? Because in its simplicity, and its apparent impossibility, the effect comes closer to real magic than anything you are likely to see, or show to your audiences, for many long months to come. The simple, but absolutely mind-blowing effect is that a nickel held at arms length in one hand, with both sleeves rolled up, disappears completely from that hand, and then without a false move, reappears again. The step-by-step process, with no omissions ons, is as follows: the magician puts his right hand in his right pants pocket and pulls out a nickel, which he shows to the audience, as his left hand firmly holds the bare right wrist, keeping it steady so that the coin may be carefully noted by the spectators. The right hand then places the nickel in the upturned left palm, following which the left hand is held out towards the left, and the left little finger, ring finger, second finger, forefinger, and thumb, slowly close in turn over the coin. The closed left fist is then turned to show the audience the back of the left - hand.

The left hand, still closed, then moves slowly to the left, and is rotated so the audience may again see the left fingers closed over the palm, after which the fingers are slowly opened wide, in the same sequence that they closed, and the left hand is shown to be completely empty. Next, the left hand, with the fingers spread wide apart, is slowly turned so that the audience may see the absolutely empty back of the left hand.

Then, to make sure that the audience has had every chance to observe the hand carefully from both sides, the empty palm, and the empty back of the hand are again shown in turn to the spectators. The fingers of the left hand are then closed; the closed left palm shown carefully to the audience, and the hand is slowly opened to show that the coin has mysteriously returned to the palm. allowed to drop to the left fingertips, The coin is allow. which grasp it, and toss it into the right hand, which returns it to the right pants pocket.

Elementary in its straightforwardness? You can believe it Undetectable as to what actually happened to the coin? Yes. You know how unblinking the television camera is as it stares at the hand, bathed in brilliant studio light. Necessary to rehearse the presentation a bit? Of course. But if you want a miracle, here you have it. No one truly interested in brilliant magical concepts should be without this one. And you can do it!