1. THE REGULAR PALM
This is the foundation upon which all sleight-of-hand magic has been built; it is the acquired faculty of holding any small object in the palm of the hand without the aid of the fingers.
The first step is to learn how this unconventional hold is made. If you place a half dollar in the middle of the palm of your hand and contract the hand slightly, you will find that the coin will be gripped by its sides between the two fleshy pads, one at the base of the thumb, the other opposite this one and in line with the third and fourth fingers. At first, in order to exert enough pressure on the coin, the hand will assume a very cramped position; however, in a short time the muscles will become educated and it will be found that a coin can be held in the palm with a contraction so slight that the hand retains a perfectly natural appearance.
Palming is the backbone of sleight of hand and it is useless to try to proceed further until it is acquired. This is easily done if you make a practice of always having a coin—a half dollar, for example—in your pocket and form the habit of holding it in your palm at odd times. A half dollar is the best coin to start with and once you are able to hold it easily in the palm of the hand you will find very little difficulty in applying the same grip to coins of any size. It must always be borne in mind that the ideal to be aimed at when palming a coin, or any other small object, is to hold the hand in a perfectly natural way.
The first impulse of the beginner is to stretch out the fingers and the thumb to the utmost; guard against this by studying the appearance of your hand when it is at rest, and copy that.
From the very first acquire the habit of always keeping the palm of the hand toward the body when you palm a coin, so that the action will become automatic. The most perfect palm is wasted if the hand is unconsciously turned toward the spectators. The fingers must also be trained to act freely and independently when a coin is in the palm of the hand. An excellent practice is to hold a coin in the palm when writing or playing cards.
Several coins can be palmed at once; they should not be laid on the palm in a pile but slightly overlapping one another toward the roots of the fingers. The greater the number of coins, the greater the necessary contraction of the hand will be; but it is seldom that more than three or four will have to be palmed at the same time.
The second step is to learn how to place the coin in the correct position in the palm secretly. Take the coin between the first finger and the thumb, flat; turn the hand over and slide the coin onto the tips of the second and third fingers with the help of the thumb (Fig. 1). Remove the thumb and place its tip against the tip of the forefinger to prevent its automatic extension outwards, a fault that many performers never realize; at the same time bend the two middle fingers and press the coin into the palm, which retains it (Fig. 2). At once extend the two middle fingers and again place the tip of the thumb against them, bringing both into exactly the same position as before but without the coin. Practice the movement until you can place the coin in the palm in an instant.
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