Counterfeit Detector by Dick Zimmerman, Viking Mfg.

The idea for the Counterfeit Detector was created by Dick Zimmerman c. 1989. He contacted George Robinson at Viking Mfg. and after some refinements it was released in 1992. Viking made a one-time run of 500 units and it has not been produced again. It is a great little item with a wonderful routine.

Effect: This gleaming brass box was invented to detect counterfeit quarters (so you claim). Taking a ‘counterfeit’ quarter you show that it is larger than the holes in the top and bottom of the box, but when slightly cooled it apparently shrinks and drops through the hole in the top of the box.

After warming up it’s again bigger than the hole. You then borrow a real quarter to show that only counterfeit coins behave in this strange fashion. To your surprise, the borrowed quarter also drops through the hole in the box. Then it drops through the bottom hole.

After ‘warming up’ it does not pass through either hole – proving that the spectator was carrying around a counterfeit.

Easy to do. The precision-made brass box does the work.

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