The Bill Switch: A Money Magic Routine

This is a handy bit of magic to learn, it is done with every day objects and the moves can be applied to other similar items.
 

Routine

Borrow a dollar bill from a spectator and display it to the audience. You talk about how inflation has caused the value of the dollar to drop, it just doesn’t go as far as it used to. At this time you begin to fold the dollar into a small packet, while saying something like, "Some things that used to be a dollar now cost almost ten times as much!" and begin to unfold the dollar. "That’s where it comes in handy to be a magician." You completely unfold the bill, revealing that it is now a 10-dollar bill! Freely show both sides of the bill to the audience.

Begin to fold the bill back again as you say “Unfortunately the more you have, the more Uncle Sam wants to take.” You unfold the packet once again to reveal the 10 dollar bill has changed back to the one dollar bill you borrowed, display it again freely before returning it to its rightful owner.
 

How it works

The set up:

	Start with the 10-dollar bill folded into a packet following the  method that is shown. Conceal this packet in your fingers; make sure that the open folds are facing up and facing inward to your  palm. This insures the bill to be upright when unfolded.
	Borrow a dollar bill from a spectator, making sure to take the bill  with the hand not holding the hidden bill.
	Grasp the $1 bill with the hand concealing the folded $10 bill, & slide this packet behind the dollar bill (as shown, only with the  packet on the side of the bill towards you, so  the audience can see it). Proceed to fold and unfold the bills as shown below.

  The fold

	Step 1: Begin by folding the bill end to end bringing the end  without the packet across to the packet side.
	Step 2: Fold in half from bottom to top.
	Step 3: Fold end-to-end again like in step 1.
	Step 4: Fold once more repeating step 2.
	Step 5: Turn the packet completely over so that the 10-dollar  bill now faces the audience.
	Unfold the bill in the opposite manner as you folded it. Step 6a: Unfold top to bottom
	Step 6b: Unfold end-to-end
	Step 6c: Unfold top bottom
	Step 6d: Unfold end-to-end.
	Step 7: You can now easily slide the folded dollar bill into your  fingertips to conceal it and show the other bill front and back.
	Step 8: Simply repeat these steps to change the $10 back  to the original dollar.

Tips

• As always you want to practice your moves to get them down smoothly before showing any spectators. Practice the folding and unfolding in front of a mirror until you can do it smoothly both ways.
• Take your time unfolding the bill; it can be a little tricky to catch the packet at its folds.
• When displaying the bill after the change, simply turn it over end-to-end one time to show the complete change, no need to overdo it and draw suspicion to the hand hiding the bill.
• This handy folding technique also lets you change one colored piece of paper to another color, great for use with younger audiences!