The Chocolate Coin Trick

The performer takes a card and borrows a coin from the audience.

They place the coin beneath the card and, using a pencil, begin to rub an impression of the coin onto the white surface—just like we all did as kids.

Once the impression is clearly visible, the performer asks a spectator to hold the card with the drawing. They keep the coin and explain that they’re going to make it disappear.

Magic, after all, is deeply tied to that childlike sense of play and wonder. Like rubbing a coin through paper—simple gestures that hold more meaning than they seem. And how would a child make a coin vanish?

Slowly, the performer peels the coin, revealing that it has turned into a chocolate coin. They unwrap the foil and eat it. Ta-daa! It’s gone.

And just as children dream of drawn things coming to life, the same happens here. The spectator begins to feel the card growing heavier and heavier—far too heavy to be just a card.

There’s something inside. The coin impression has become the coin itself: the spectator tears the card in half and, buried within its layers, they find their coin.

The Chocolate Coin Trick

I recently came across the transcription of this effect, something I created over three years ago. Since I’m primarily a card magician, ideas like this often sit in a notebook for years before finding a purpose.

This feels like the right moment to share it, and to finally explain the method so it can escape the pages of that notebook.

As you’ve just read, the effect has a particular tone. It leans toward the surreal, and while the method may not be the most accessible for everyone, it’s not especially difficult. In truth, the structure and the props do most of the work.

What makes this routine special are its layered components, each carrying meaning and rich connotation.

In short: a borrowed coin becomes a chocolate coin, which disappears in the most natural way a chocolate coin can… it gets eaten. Then, the impression of that coin—rubbed onto a card—becomes the coin itself, and it reappears.