According to Dr. Albo in The Ultimate Thayer on Disc 7 what looks exactly like this tray was first introduced by Floyd Thayer in the 1913 catalog. However, in both the 1913 Magical Woodcraft catalog (Thayer & Christianer) and the 1916 Magical Woodcraft No. 3 (Thayer) the only coin trays are the more traditional Multiplying Coin Trays. I could not find a reference to this specific tray until 1925 in Thayer’s catalog #6 and it was called The Master Coin Tray, so that is the date I’m going with for now.
This beautiful mahogany coin tray is very different from typical coin trays because this doesn’t allow you just to secretly add coins, but you can vanish and exchange them too. This means you can perform a clever routine where signed coins can vanish from one location and appear in a second location, even if you never touch the coins.
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