The Dissolving Coin

This is one of the most mystifying of coin tricks. You will be able to do it after practicing it just a few times. You can do this trick at any time - at the dinner table, in a business office, or before an audience.

Magician borrows a half dollar from someone in the audience and asks the loaner to mark it so that he will be able to identify it later. Then the magician borrows a handkerchief and places the coin in the center of it. The loaner is given a glass of water to hold in his left hand and the coin and handkerchief in his right hand.

At a given signal he is told to drop the coin into the glass of water and then to remove the handkerchief. To his great surprise he finds the coin has disappeared. Then the performer nonchalantly takes the marked half dollar out of his purse, which has been in his pocket during the entire trick.