Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Topsy-turvy Bill

In this perennial mystery puzzle, a bill, held with the picture of the president upright, is folded, then unfolded, and the president has turned upside down.

The first published description known of this stunt appeared in Max Holden's column in The Linking Ring, Vol. 19 No. 8, Oct. 1939, p. 656, where it is described as having been shown around the IBM Convention at Battle Creek, MI, earlier that year. No source is cited, and the description is terse. Holden writes that two folds are made.

A better explanation, with illustrations, came two years later from Martin Gardner: “The Curious Fold” in After the Dessert, 1941, p. 5. Gardner's description adds a third fold.