Conjuring Credits

The Origins of Wonder

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Instantaneous Coin Change

This one-handed transformation of a coin, which occurs as the coin is tossed into the air and caught, uses the Tenkai pinch in a very effective way. The change was first described in Bobo's New Modern Coin Magic, 1966, p. 361, where it is credited to Howard Schwartzman. The change, however, is a variant of a much earlier change contributed by “G. J.”—presumably editor George Johnson—to The Magic Wand, Vol. 4 No. 45, May 1914, p. 721. Johnson's article describes a sequence of one-handed changes, of which the toss change is a second transformation. The second coin is concealed by and tossed from back palm. Schwartzman's change uses almost identical actions but conceals the coin in Tenkai pinch rather than back palm.