Cash and Change Purse
By William H. McCaffrey

The magician gives a pack of cards to a spectator and permits him, after he has shuffled the deck, to choose any card. The magician then takes the deck and hands it to another spectator to shuffle. He asks the one who chose the card to write his initials on the face of the card. The magician riffles the deck so that the spectator may replace his card in any position. The magician squares the deck and passes it to another spectator. He then reaches in his pocket and brings out a small change purse, of the type that has two nubs which overlap one another to hold the purse closed. The spectator is asked to look through the deck. He finds that the marked, chosen card is missing. He is invited to open the purse. Inside, he finds that chosen card, with its identifying marks, folded to one-fourth the size of the open card.

Up to the point where the card is replaced in the deck everything is quite as it seems. The sleight to get the card out of the deck is an adaptation of the "dove-tail pass."

When the magician riffles the deck so that the spectator may replace his card, the deck is held in the left hand in the dealing position except that it is held a little lower in the hand than most people hold the cards in dealing. As the magician looks down on his hand, the tip of his little finger is at the lower right hand corner of the pack. The left hand side lies along the base of the thumb. The top itself is on top of the pack. The magician riffles the cards, as I have said, and allows the card to be replaced at any point. Before the card is pushed too far in the deck, he exerts a little pressure with his thumb so that the card cannot be pushed all the way in. The magician then, apparently, pushes the card down into the deck. Actually what he does is to press the card diagonally to the right. In short, exactly what is done with the "dove-tail pass," but in the opposite direction. As the card is pressed around to the right, the fingers of the left hand straighten out. This, of course, is done under cover of the fingers of the right hand while the thumb of the left hand holds the pack together. The fingers of the left hand then curl back toward the deck and, if the moves are made correctly, the chosen card is held in the usual palming position in the left hand except that the cards of the rest of the pack are both above and below the chosen card. The left hand, as this "dove-tail" pass is made, is turned so that the back of it is toward the audience. The right hand takes hold of the pack, at the top, which is protruding out from the left hand, and pulls the pack away from the left hand, leaving the chosen card palmed.

As the pack is handed to the spectator, the left hand drops to the side. When you close the left hand, the card is folded in half. Then pressing with the thumb in the center of the folded card and permitting a little space between the second and third fingers, it will be found very easy to fold the card in quarters. The left hand then goes into the left coat pocket and pushes the unfolded card into the already open change purse. The purse is snapped shut and brought from the pocket and handed to the spectator. If this trick is done correctly, the audience not only will have no idea that the card could have left the pack, but will not dream that the chosen card could be found in the tiny change purse.