The setup

Use a cloth napkin or handkerchief that is opaque, not sheer. Hold a coin upright at the fingertips of your left hand, gripped between the thumb (on your side) and the first two fingers (on the audience side), so its face shows to your spectator.

  1. Cover the coin. Drape the napkin over the coin and your left hand, centered so the coin is under the middle of the cloth.
  2. The secret pinch. Through the cloth, use your left thumb to nip a small fold of the napkin against the back of the coin, on your side. The thumb now holds the coin and this little pinch of cloth together.
  3. Show it is still there. With your right hand, lift the front edge of the napkin up and back over the coin toward you, so the coin is exposed. Let the spectator see it.
  4. Recover the coin. Now your right hand takes both edges of the napkin hanging on your side—the front edge you just lifted and the back edge—and lifts them forward together over the coin. Because of the pinch, the coin is now behind the napkin on your side, outside the cloth, though it looks covered.
  5. Twist. Grip the napkin below the coin with your right hand and twist it a few times, so the coin seems to be trapped in a little bag of cloth. In reality it sits in a fold at the back.
  6. Push through. Slowly squeeze the coin upward out of the fold. From the front, it appears to penetrate the cloth. Hand out the coin and the napkin.

Why it works: When you show the coin and re-cover it, the pinch makes the napkin's back edge come forward with the front. The coin quietly ends up outside the cloth, and the twist hides that fact.

Practise the re-cover

Step 4 is the whole trick. Practise it in a mirror until lifting both edges forward feels like the same casual gesture as lifting one edge back. Do not look at your left thumb.

Angles

Perform for spectators in front of you. Anyone behind you will see the coin outside the cloth during the twist.

Next: The French drop