Palming a coin

1. Place a quarter in the crook between your thumb and forefinger, then hold the coin in place with your thumb.
2. Push the coin toward the back of your hand so it won't be visible to anyone looking at your palm.
3. Go up to a small child and say, "Hey, look! Do you see the quarter floating in the air?"
4. After the child says, "What quawter? There'f no quawter thayw! You cwazy!" then point out the invisible quarter with your free hand.
5. After the child has made more slurs about your intelligence and inherent poopoo-headedness, make a grab at the air, quickly slipping the coin from between your fingers to the palm of your hand. Practice this part beforehand.
6. Open your hand and show the child the quarter. Bask in the little pillbug's consternation.

There are actually many different ways to "palm a coin", which to a practitioner of sleight of hand just means holding the coin in such a way that it does not look like you are holding it. One of the most common ways, and indeed the method that gives the entire category its name, is the method that cosmonaut described above. Other methods include:

• holding the coin in the fold of flesh that appears on the palm side of your hand when you put your thumb next to your index finger
• holding the coin between your palm and the second knuckle of your middle and ring fingers
• holding the coin flat against your palm with your ring and/or little finger(this sounds like it would be obvious, but if you hold the rest of your hand so it feels natural your marks won't suspect a thing)
• holding the coin flat between two fingers so that it cannot be seen from the front(or back) of your hand
• holding the coin between the index and little fingers either in front of or behind the middle and ring fingers(there's a very cool and difficult trick where you pull the middle and index fingers around to the other side of the coin so that you can show both sides of your hand empty)
• holding the coin between the second and third knuckle of your middle and ring fingers

Using these methods of palming coins and some disarming patter, as well as a few methods of redirecting the attention of your marks, it is possible to put together a multitude of tricks involving disappearing, appearing, and multiplying coins.