Title Han Ping Chien
People Han Ping Chien, Dai Vernon, Earl "Presto" Johnson
Year 1917
Source The Han Ping Chien Coin Trick (manuscript)
Description To secretly pass a set of coins from one hand to the other.
Details The early history of Han Ping Chien is well documented by Ladson Butler, in a manuscript he published in 1917 titled "The Han Ping Chien Coin Trick." Its development since has been a largely unrecorded tale. When Mr. Han performed his effect, with eight pennies and a dime, as recorded by Butler, he rested both elbows on the table with the palms downward. The coins were held "between the very tips of the fingers and the palm." From Butler's description it is clear that the idea of performing the move with the hands above the table surface was Han's. It is also true that Mr. Han executed the move with the palms toward the table.

It is unclear who was the first to perform or publish an altered technique but many years passed till, in The Dai Vernon Book of Magic, Ganson described Vernon's execution of the move as part of an effect titled "A Chinese Classic." From Ganson's words we see that Vernon had altered the move from what Han originally developed in two major ways: (1) He had rotated the hand so the palm was perpendicular to the table. (2) He moved the hand to the table's surface.

The Vernon technique is, arguably, both better and worse then Han's. The hand being sideways may be an improvement over Han's palm down position but worse, though safer, in moving the hands to the table. Vernon may not have been the first nor was he the only perpetrator of the tabled hand. All four versions that appear in J. B. Bobo's New Modern Coin Magic, three assumably attributable to the author, one credited to Stewart Judah, are tabled versions of the move. Even Tony Slydini, whose technique was generally beyond criticism, falls prey to the tabled Han Ping Chien Move. It seems the technique was being degraded over time in the name of reliability.

At this point the record becomes quite incorrect. In 1981, Richard Kaufman describes a palm up version of the Han Ping Chien technique (CoinMagic), attributing it to Geoffrey Latta. This attribution is completely incorrect. In 1953, or perhaps earlier, Earl "Presto" Johnson began performing a palm-up version of Han Ping Chien into the hands of a spectator or onto a table. By 1955 I was using that technique, as taught to me by Presto. By 1972 or 73, when Latta and I first met, I was using Presto's technique exclusively. Presto continued to use the technique and a number of other New York area magicians had adopted it as well.

I have stated to Geoff Latta and he declines to refute that he picked up the technique from me. I state unequivocally, the technique is not mine but that of Earl "Presto" Johnson. It is not impossible that others developed the technique independently but, as the published record stands, the technique is attributed to Mr. Latta but I can state it predates that published record by more than 25 years.

(See also the Gallo Pitch, a fine, closely-related technique, of more recent vintage, with a different choreography but employing the same core concept.)

 Researched by Wesley James
 Category move
 Subcategory coins