To Pass Five Coins from One Tumbler to Another

Two glass tumblers are used for this trick: one is without preparation of any kind, but the other has the bottom cut out. The performer borrows five half-dollars, and substitutes for them five of his own. In each of these is drilled a tiny hole, near the edge. A black silk thread is tied to one coin and the thread is then passed through the holes in the others. To the free end of the thread is a bit of wax. The wax is held between the roots of the fingers, and the coins, stacked up, are between the finger tips. The coins are dropped, one at a time into the unprepared tumbler, and when all are in the wax is stuck on the back of the glass. The glass is covered with a handkerchief; the bottomless glass is also covered with a handkerchief. The coins are now ordered to leave one glass and go to the other. Taking hold of the handkerchief on the unprepared glass and at the same time of the thread and dislodging the wax, the performer removes handkerchief and coins, the latter concealed in the folds of the former. Picking up the bottomless glass, which is still covered, he places it on his left hand, in the palm of which the borrowed coins are concealed. Pulling off the handkerchief, he shakes up the coins in the glass, and then pours them out into his right hand, and placing the glass on the table, carries the money to the audience to show them that it is entirely unprepared.