Easy Magic Tricks with Coins
While we love playing cards and card tricks, the ability to make coins disappear and teleport between your hands is about as close to real magic as possible. Coin tricks are especially incredible when you see them performed by a coin magic expert like David Roth, T. Nelson Downs, Dai Vernon, or more recently, Eric Jones on America’s Got Talent.
There are many ways to learn how to do magic tricks with coins in books such as Modern Coin Magic by J.B. Bobo or David Roth’s Expert Coin Magic by Richard Kaufman, or any of our other most popular money magic tricks.
But, what about coin tricks for beginners or coin magic tricks for kids?
We’ve got you covered with these free easy magic tricks with coins.
Produce a Coin from Behind Someone’s Ear
The “quarter from the ear” trick is an easy to learn simple magic trick that everyone’s grandpa or uncle has tried on them at some point. Despite being easy to do, there is no denying that producing money out of thin air is a magical moment.
Before you begin, you’ll need to learn a beginner coin magic sleight of hand move known as the finger palm:
Start with a coin in your right hand (or left if you’re a lefty), positioned across the bottom joints of your two middle fingers (photo a).
Curl your fingers and gently squeeze the coin between the joints (photo b).
You can now rest your hand naturally by your side or on the table (photo c).
With the coin resting in finger palm, it’s time to produce the coin:
Reach toward your spectator’s ear while maintaining eye contact with them.
Once your hand is out of their peripheral vision, straighten out your fingertips and push the coin toward the end of them at the same time (photo d)
Bring your right hand back into view and display the coin. This all happens in one fluid motion that takes a couple seconds at most.
Pro Tip from a Professional Magician
To get comfortable with the finger palm, bring a coin with you and practice while you walk around everyday. Secretly hiding this coin, even when you’re not performing a magic trick, will help you quickly master this sleight of hand move.
Make a Coin Disappear
Making an object mysteriously disappear is one of the most powerful pieces of magic you can perform. And with just a coin and a little bit of practice, you too can look like a real-life Harry Potter.
While sitting at a table, explain how you’re going to perform a special coin magic trick where you transform one coin into another coin (i.e. a penny into a quarter). This is simply a ruse, or a bit of misdirection, that will help hide the real secret to this coin trick later on.
Place the coin in your dominant hand and rest your opposite elbow on the table. The tabled arm should be tilted back so you can rest your chin on your loosely closed fist.
Begin rubbing the coin on your elbow for a few seconds before “accidentally” dropping it on the table.
Acting confused, relax both arms below the table and pick up the coin. Then repeat steps 2 and 3 again. This part is important because seemingly “failing” the trick twice causes the audience to relax right before the quick bit of action that makes the secret to this coin trick work.
Go to pick up the coin again. But, this time, slide it with your dominant hand toward the edge of the table until it falls in your other hand resting open on your lap (this is a variation of a basic sleight of hand technique called “lapping”).
Right as the coin falls, keep your dominant hand moving upward away from the table as if you’re actually picking up the coin. These last two steps should happen in one fluid motion.
Go to repeat the exact same motions from before as if you were actually rubbing the coin into your elbow.
As you pull away your hand to show the coin has completely disappeared, release the real coin from your other hand into the collar of your shirt, allowing it to slide down your back and out of sight. Show both hands empty and make a joke about how you might be an even better magician than you thought.
Pro Tip from a Professional Magician
When practicing vanishing the coin, actually pick up the coin instead of letting it fall into your lap. Do this many times while paying attention to what your hand does when you actually have the coin. Then start doing the vanish. Practicing like this trains your muscle memory to create the exact same motions when picking up the coin as when vanishing it. This makes your coin magic way more deceptive.
The Mind-Reading Coins
This is a fun and easy mentalism trick that will have your audience convinced you’re a true mind-reader. It’s impromptu, meaning it’s a great party trick that you can use to impress your friends and family with at any time.
Before you start, grab three different coins (i.e. penny, nickel, quarter) or bills. Then, write a prediction on a piece of paper or text it to a friend (just make sure they don’t open it early). For this example, we will write “you will choose the penny” as our prediction.
Place all the coins on the table. You’re now going to perform something called the “Magician’s Choice” which uses clever wording to make them select a coin you want them too.
Ask your friend to place their hands on top of any of the two coins and slide them toward you.
If they slide the nickel and quarter, emphasize how by eliminating the quarter and nickel, they have SELECTED to KEEP the penny (the wording is important). They can then open the prediction to see you’ve performed a miracle.
If one of the two coins they slide is your prediction (i.e. the nickel and penny), you’ll immediately ask them to pick up these coins into their hands. As they do, you’ll push the remaining coin (in this case, the quarter) to the side stating how “they’ve chosen to eliminate the quarter”.
Tell them to give you one coin (being vague here is key). If they hand you the penny, say “Great, you’ve SELECTED the penny” and proceed to the prediction.
If they hand you the nickel, say “great, we’ll get rid of this one too” and place it alongside the quarter on the table. Mention how they’ve chosen to “KEEP” the penny”. Then proceed to the prediction.
Pro Tip from a Professional Magician
The key to this mind reading trick is the fact that the audience doesn’t know what to expect. It’s important to practice each outcome so that your responses to the changing situations are as natural as possible. This basic mentalism technique is called equivoque or “Magician’s Choice” and can be used for a variety of different magic tricks. Check out these other easy mentalism tricks you can do today.
