Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

The genuine coins cannot return, by reason of the raised edge of b; but the substitute coins in their turn slide out upon c, which is then allowed to return to its original position. The necessary movement, though comparatively tedious in description, is in skilful hands so rapid in execution that, where coins of the same kind are substituted--e.g., half-crowns for half-crowns--the most acute spectator cannot detect that any change has taken place. A most startling effect is produced by substituting coins of a different kind, as pence for half-crowns, the coins appearing to be transformed by a mere shake into a different metal. The change involving a double process--viz., the disappearance of certain coins and the appearance of others--it is obvious that the tray will be equally available for either process singly. Thus coins placed upon the tray may be made to instantly vanish, or, by reversing the process, coins may be made to appear where there was nothing a moment previously. In like manner, a given number of coins may be increased to a larger, or decreased (in this case really changed) to a smaller number. This tray has not, like that last described, any additional flat tube beneath the tray, but one end of a and b is closed by a little slide, hidden beneath the edge of the tray, to allow of the money therein being extracted when necessary.