Modern Magic: A Practical Treatise on the Art of Conjuring

V. THE MARKED FLORIN IN ORANGES.--Previous to performing this trick, get two florins exactly alike, and mark them both similarly. Then get two oranges and cut a slit in each. Place them on the table after you have put one of the marked florins inside one of them. Then borrow from the audience a florin, and request the owner of the florin to mark it. You then ask a person in another part of the room to hold it, but giving him your marked florin instead of the borrowed one. Then you go to the table and slip into the other orange the borrowed florin. You ask your audience in which orange they would like the marked coin to be found, remembering that as you face the audience it does not matter which they say--right or left--as your right is their left, and their left your right. Whichever orange they ask for, take the one containing your marked florin. You then ask the party holding the florin if he would be sure to know it again. Then give him the orange to hold on the point of the knife; and in taking the florin from him conceal it in your hand, and say that you will cause it to pass into the orange which he holds. On cutting the orange open he, of course, finds your marked florin, which, on examination, he asserts to be the one held by him. Then say that it would have been totally indifferent which orange was selected; and give the other orange to the person who lent the florin to hold. You then take your marked florin and say that you will cause it to pass in the orange he holds in his hand; and request him to cut it open. He does so, and then perceives his own marked coin in the centre.