Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Copper-Silver Transpositions with a Copper-Silver Feke

Reginald Scot described the copper-silver feke in Discoverie of Witchcraft, 1584, p. 328. The idea of using two copper-silver fekes to obtain a transposition is described by Diego Joseph Zamorano in Thesoro atractivo de curiosos, 1740, p. 170 of the Pieper translation. Zamorano's book was translated in Gibecière, Vol. 6 No. 2, Summer 2011, pp. 97-176.

Victor Farelli published “Vice-Versa”, a copper-silver transposition routine using two copper-silver fekes, in The Sphinx, Vol. 38 No. 3, May 1939, p. 64. Paul N. Rylander in The Sphinx, Vol. 48 No. 11, Jan. 1950, p. 282, published a copper-silver transposition routine, “Copper and Silver”, using only one copper-silver feke. Ed Marlo also published a copper-silver transposition routine, “Copper & Silver”, using the feke in The New Jinx, Vol. 1 No. 7, Nov. 1962, p. 30.

The discrepant display of both sides of two copper-silver coins seems first to have been published by Jules DeBarros in his Coins of Ishtar, 1971, p. 7. This does not use the Land/Elias Two-Card Monte slide dynamic. Since both coins are fekes, one turned silver-side up and other copper-side up, reversing their positions isn't necessary to be deceptive. The Land/Elias sliding mechanic has been applied by others to a coin display with fekes, such as Sol Stone's “Double Twist” from CoinMagic, 1981, p. 115.

See also Copper-Silver Transposition Using an Extra Coin