Need help figuring out a magic trick I witnessed

Anyone have any idea how a magician would go about moving the federal reserve indicator from the left side of a dollar bill to the right? It wasn't a trick bill, I pulled it out of my own pocket and wrote my initials on the back. I still have the bill with the relocated letter, and my initials still residing on the back of the bill .

Any help would be appreciated, as I am still stumped on this one.



Note to Mods: This is a link to my personal blog, it simply saves me the time of typing everything out and posting the pics. If need be I will delete the link and redo everything here.

Mod Edit: Removed Link.

[edit on 14/8/2007 by Mirthful Me]

Wow thats quite the story.
I have no idea but heres a pic for the lazy.

The top bill is the control.
And the bottom bill is the bill in question.

What Renshin said. The bill you have, with your initials on it, is not the bill you pulled from your wallet. Er... Unless the magician specifically asked you to look at the serial number before you handed it to him.

Incidentally, if you have a legitimate, non-counterfeit Federal Reserve note with a misprint like that, it might be worth an extra buck or two -- depending on it's vintage and condition, of course.

Originally posted by slackerwire
Anyone have any idea how a magician would go about moving the federal reserve indicator from the left side of a dollar bill to the right? It wasn't a trick bill, I pulled it out of my own pocket and wrote my initials on the back. I still have the bill with the relocated letter, and my initials still residing on the back of the bill .

Any help would be appreciated, as I am still stumped on this one.

If it is indeed the same bill and not a trick bill, then it is possible for someone with a Gift of Chi-Telekinesis - which is rare among illusionists - to do this.

An example of someone with this ability is David Blaine:

David visibly changes the signature of the treasurer on a dollar bill to the spectator's signature.

Source

This was shown on film.

Quite extraordinary

[edit on 16-8-2007 by Paul_Richard]

Originally posted by Tuning Spork
What Renshin said. The bill you have, with your initials on it, is not the bill you pulled from your wallet. Er... Unless the magician specifically asked you to look at the serial number before you handed it to him.

I thought of that too before thinking back and asking the people I was with about it. The bill never left my hand from the time it came out of my pocket until the time my initials went on it.

These tricks are most often done with two bills and even when you think the original bill never leaves your hand, a little misdirection and a touch and whalla! The trick, she is done.

The magician will often switch the bills right in your own hand. If he is within reaching distance of you or has a foil working for him, again it's just a matter of misdirection.

Either that or it's real!

David Blaine -- Chi -TK? Yeah right!!

You can see his right arm move back to "facilitate the exit" from the illusion.

With any of this nonsense they really on the illusion. How many people record the serial number? They know this...they know how much "proof" the average mark needs. Its all illusion and distraction..like a decent pickpocket.

Personally, I would not be satisfied unless I withdrew the money from the ATM recorded the serial numbers, sealed that info in an envelope, guard it well and then see how magical they really are

Or better still withdraw from your pocket a bill of some totally obscure currency and see their faces go ashen............

Gods teeth, why is this nonsense in a paranormal forum???

Originally posted by bash the bishop
David Blaine -- Chi -TK?

Yeah right!!

David Blaine's Gift of Chi-Telekinesis enabled him to make a street person win $1600 with scratch tickets purchased at a convenience store and also to make two women in a casino win $3200.

Get a grip and do some homework before indicating to us your level of metaphysical education.

Or rather...your lack of it

That bill that the magician gave you is a fake.. because every letter on a bill will always match the number along side it... like letter L will always have 12 next.... and B will always have 2 and so on... i believe the numbers only go as far as to 12, because there is only 12 federal reserve bank.... look at other dollar bills and every letter will match in with its numerical order...


I think someone can explain the banking system better than i can... it's been awhile for me

Ever saw a professional pick-pocket at work? I think it was on an episode or Ripley's Believe It Or Not. Where they interviewed and tested a once criminal pick-pocketer, now working with the police(Can't remember what department) to help train policemen/policewomen about the act itself.

This guy...on camera, took off a guys tie in a matter of seconds & the guy had no idea his tie & watch was gone. That being said...pros do what they do very well.

Originally posted by Paul_Richard
David Blaine's Gift of Chi-Telekinesis enabled him to make a street person win $1600 with scratch tickets purchased at a convenience store and also to make two women in a casino win $3200.

Get a grip and do some homework before indicating to us your level of metaphysical education.

Or rather...your lack of it

First off, this thread isn't about a street illusionist named David Blaine. He wanted an answer about a magic trick. About that, he probably switched out your bill for another one. That's a misprinted dollar. That's it. No magic. But it might be worth something as an error.

About David Blaine, since he was brought up. He is an illusionist. Do you realize what that means? That means he creates illusions, or as defined by dictionary.com, something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality. Which in simple terms, means fake.

What is this "Gift of Chi-Telekinesis" that you keep going on about? Chi is the essential life force that makes us healthy. Telekinesis is the ability to move things without physically touching them. I don't see the correlation. I tried searching this on the web, thinking maybe I'm missing something. No matter how I plugged it in, I only got three different hits for it. All three were from AboveTopSecret threads dealing with David Blaine or Criss Angel. I'm calling Shenanigans on you. This is a made up phrase that means nothing. It sounds like something from a ninja video game. I have dabbled with chinese spiritualism and by no means am an expert, but I am not an idiot about it either. Chi is a gift. The gift of life. But telekinesis plays no part in it whatsoever. You can't just throw a bunch of words together and expect people to believe what you say because there are big words involved.

Anyone who believes that David Blaine is anything more than a street entertainer is only lying to themselves. Anyone can perform the same tricks he does. How he does all of them, I don't know. That's why he makes money for it and I don't. But they are tricks. He is a normal man with no special powers. Search online. You can learn to do almost all of his tricks. His special ones are performed with the aid of camera angles.

Maybe you ought to study up on your metaphysical education.

I'm not saying there aren't things out there that can't be explained, but David Blaine is not one of them.

Originally posted by keymaster


First off, this thread isn't about a street illusionist named David Blaine. He wanted an answer about a magic trick. About that, he probably switched out your bill for another one. That's a misprinted dollar. That's it. No magic. But it might be worth something as an error.

Allow me to ask what is most likely a stupid question.

Considering the dollar bill came out of my pocket and I laid it into one of his open hands, how would a magician go about switching my dollar? I understand they are great practitioners of sleight of hand tricks, but even sleight of hand takes certain hand positioning and distraction. Not really knowing this magician, I was concentrated on that dollar because I figured something was going to happen to it.

He also performed another trick for a girl that was with us. She took a dollar out of her purse, wrote her initials on it, folded it up real small and held it in her clenched fist. He did his little wave his hands over hers (I should mention that at this point he did not touch her bill at any point) she opened her hand and the bill was gone. He then proceeded to take a lemon out of his little man bag, squeezed it to show there were no holes in it and asked me for a knife. He cut the lemon open and her folded up dollar was inside the lemon.

^ Do a search on the internet for some advanced magic tricks. Then try to find a magic store...then try to find a damn good magician who's willing to let you in on a few secrets. My father does that dollar trick, ofcourse without the lemon, but the dollar does disappear from my hand and appear where ever he wants it(ofcourse, he plans where he wants it first) & he won't show me how he does it at all. I do know for a fact thought that it's nothing "special." It's a trick. Simply because the mare man cannot explain it, because he does not know & does not have all the tools to figure it out doesn't make it real.

There are some tricks I can do that will truly have you in awe. Probably make you think I'm some sort of prophet of Christ. I'm not, I just know things you don't.

Originally posted by slackerwire

Allow me to ask what is most likely a stupid question.

Considering the dollar bill came out of my pocket and I laid it into one of his open hands, how would a magician go about switching my dollar? I understand they are great practitioners of sleight of hand tricks, but even sleight of hand takes certain hand positioning and distraction. Not really knowing this magician, I was concentrated on that dollar because I figured something was going to happen to it.

He also performed another trick for a girl that was with us. She took a dollar out of her purse, wrote her initials on it, folded it up real small and held it in her clenched fist. He did his little wave his hands over hers (I should mention that at this point he did not touch her bill at any point) she opened her hand and the bill was gone. He then proceeded to take a lemon out of his little man bag, squeezed it to show there were no holes in it and asked me for a knife. He cut the lemon open and her folded up dollar was inside the lemon.

If I could tell you exactly how to do it, I wouldn't have to be a cook for a living. But like he said above. Search the internet and there are multitudes of magic books out there. They show you step by step with illustrations. It's all sleight of hand. I used to read them when I was a kid. Your local public library is a good place to start for beginner books or a large book store or magic shop. Don't remember how to do any of it though.

[edit on 8/20/2007 by keymaster]

Close up magic is close up for a reason. It means they can perform it right in front of your eyes and no matter how hard you concentrate the odds are you wont see the switch or the misdirection point.

As for David Blaine, he's so convincing to some that he'll even do things that most people could figure out in a few seconds if they weren't so overwhelmed.

Remember when he stood inside the ice thing for X number of days? Gee, last time I checked Eskimo's have been building Igloos out of snow for hundreds of years.

He and Angel are masters of the dramatic and use that effect to get a psychological edge over their mark.

Here's another good one (if he really did it). CA goes to a car dealership and tells the owner to hide the keys to a new Viper (You couldn't pay me to take a Dodge) anywhere on the lot he wants to. Then he tells him if I find the keys exact location I get the car. The guy agrees and CA stays in a room while the guy goes out on the lot to hide the keys. He then comes back in and gets CA and they go outside. CA has the guy hold one end of a towel while he holds the other and then proceeds to make tis dramatic mind melding trip around the lot that ends with him obviously finding the keys inside the hatch of a caravan.

Duuude! You must be psychic or some "S" like that!

OK, if he was actually cruel enough to trick this guy into doing this can anyone tell me the simple way that he found those keys? It's so simple that you could do it yourself but I doubt anyone would let you on their lot.

looking at the two bills (altered & unaltered), the only thing i could come up with is that maybe he used his thumbs to alter the bill. maybe on his right thumb he had affixed a small stamp of the reserve indicator, and maybe on his left he had some sort of white out (green out??) he used to erase/obscure the real indicator.

ruling out slight of hand, that's all i can come up with...

[edit on 21-8-2007 by Pinkus2323]

Did you use his pen to sign your initials? If so it could have had an ink that takes longer to dry than ordinary pens and would transfer to another dollar if pressed against it. As for the lemon trick it's an old standard that you can see on a lot of magician's t.v. specials. I would check the dollar bill for authenticity. Do a search and find out all the security measures used on a dollar bill, then check to see that your's has them all. Also how does the dollar fill? hold it in one hand and another dollar int he other and see if you can feel a difference.

In any case I wouldn't try to spend that dollar.

Here is Cyril Takayama playing around with money, adding some sunglasses and removing them from a bill, he does others with money also, look it up on Youtube.

Sounds like the original trick posted here is an effect called "Fraud" by David Garcia. try ellusionist.com
It's a great effect. Gets people every time, I love it.

I know what you're talking about.
It's nothing mysterious. I happen to know Danny, the guy who invented this trick and though he'll probably kill me if I told you how it's done, I will tell you that it's nothing mystic. NOTHING.

The bill that you're giving him, isn't the same bill that he's showing you. It involves misdirection and covering up. The same thing with the signature trick...

The trick involves a lot of preparation before being done.

[edit on 3-10-2007 by DelightfullyDreadful]