This is a great trick to keep in your pocket, and a snap to learn.

Instructions

• Step 1: Keeping your hand closed in a fist, ask how much money should be in your hand since you took fifty cents away. The answer is eighty-five cents.
• TIP: You will have to purchase a bang ring to separate the coins if it does not come with your set.
• Step 2: Open your empty hand to the amazement of the audience.
• FACT: Franklin Roosevelt's image was put on the dime after his death in 1946.
• Step 3: Tell the audience you are going to take the half dollar out of your hand and place in it your pocket.
• Step 4: Ask the audience as you are doing this, "How much do two half dollars, one dime, and one quarter add up to?" The answer, of course, is $1.35.
• TIP: Do not show them the back of the half-dollar – it's a gimmick coin.
• Step 5: Place the hollow half-dollar shell in the palm of your right hand, shell-side up. Then, place the quarter, dime, and the other half-dollar in the shell.
• TIP: Cup your hand as you put the coins in it.
• Step 6: Make a fist and press your fingers down to snap the coins into the shell. You now have one fifty-cent piece.
• Step 7: Display the coins on a table. Then show the audience the four coins: a quarter, a dime, and two half dollars.