Pelf Awareness

A three-phase 'Which Hand?' routine in which the performer not only is able to repeatedly ascertain which of a spectator's hands conceals a borrowed coin, but also intuits the coin's denomination and date.

This routine includes original techniques which lead the participant into giving you the necessary tells even when you are dealing with a particularly undemonstrative person.

Minted

A participant correctly identifies which of the performer's hands conceals a coin. He or she also identifies whether the coin is heads up or tails up, what denomination it is, and in which year it was minted.

Coinundrum

The performer proves that he or she is a human lie-detector by discerning which of two participants is holding a coin or other small object, and in which hand it is concealed.

In this impromptu effect, no suspicious-sounding questions are asked, the participants have a totally free choice of which roles they adopt (one could be a liar and one a truth teller, or both could be liars, or both could be telling the truth), and neither of them need know which role the other has assumed.

Soft Currency

A borrowed coin visibly bends in the performer's hand. The coin is clearly seen to remain at the performer's fingertips, and in continuous view of the audience, from the moment that it's picked up. Both hands can be shown to be otherwise empty, and the coin can be handed out for examination afterwards.

Flipside

An impromptu method for repeatedly controlling the outcome of a coin toss using nothing but a borrowed coin. The outcome will always match what someone has called (or, if you prefer, always prove to be the opposite), even if he or she doesn't call the toss until after the coin has landed.

Proof Positive

The performer writes a prediction on a business card and places it down on a table. A participant then selects one of three imaginary coins, and states whether it is head-side up or tail-side up. Both the denomination and orientation of the coin are found to match the performer's prediction.

This impromptu effect does not rely on switches or multiple outs: once the performer has placed the prediction on the table, he or she never needs to touch it again.