Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

We have thus far described eight different contrivances for vanishing money, and (including the “plug-box,” which may be used in both ways) five for reproducing it. It is obvious that either of the first may be used in combination with either of the second, producing some fifty different effects. By the use of sleight-of-hand in place of apparatus at either stage of the trick, still more numerous variations may be produced, and these may be still further multiplied by the use of other appliances to be hereafter described, which, though of less general utility, may be occasionally introduced with excellent effect. The apparatus which we shall next describe is one which is very frequently used in combination with that last mentioned. It is known as THE MIRACULOUS CASKET.--This is a neat leather- or velvet-covered box, about three inches by two, and two and a half high. When opened, it is seen to be filled with a velvet cushion or stuffing, after the manner of a ring-case, with four slits, each just large enough to admit a half-crown or florin. (See Fig. 92.) By an ingenious mechanical arrangement in the interior, which it would take too much space to describe at length, each time the box is closed one of the coins is made to drop down into the lower part, and on the box being reopened is found to have vanished.