This old standard of beginners' magic sets---the divination of the topmost number on a die hidden inside two nesting plastic capsules---was invented by Harry Roydon and put on the market in late 1954 (see, for example, Abbott's ad for it in //[[https://askalexander.org/display/23298/Tops/322|Tops]]//, Vol. 19 No. 10, Oct. 1954, p. 14).