[Jimbo]

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I made a mistake in my original post. The trick used fifty-cent pieces, not silver dollars. And the magician had me inspect the coins ahead of time, so I'm pretty sure they were genuine, not special hollow coins.

The only response that was interesting was "he only put 3 coins in your hand." However, as I said, I counted 4 coins before closing my hand.

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You inspected 4 coins, just not the same 4 coins he placed in your hand. This is really nothing special at all. I could teach you how to do it well in 20 minutes. As others pointed out one of the half dollars is a shell, it slips over one of the real half dollars. This is also how Scotch and Soda works only with a Chinese coin and half dollar(s).