You turn your back while somebody spreads a handful of coins on the table and turns over as many as they like, counting out loud as they go. They cover one coin with their hand. You turn round and tell them whether it is heads or tails.
✨ Level 2: Conjurer
⏱ 10 minutes to learn
🪙 Coins
🎒 Ages 7+
A bit of setting up, or ten to twenty minutes of practice.
👶 Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.👶 Coins are a choking risk for little ones under 4: keep them off the floor and out of small hands.
They don't hear your thoughts. Mind-reading tricks use maths that always lands on the same answer, a secret peek, or a code agreed with a partner beforehand. Magicians who do mind tricks are called mentalists.
Can you do magic with no props?
Yes, and those are the handiest tricks you can own, because you always have them with you. Number tricks need nothing but your voice, and some illusions need only your hands.
The Heads or Tails Mind Reader for kids: the whole trick
You turn your back while somebody spreads a handful of coins on the table and turns over as many as they like, counting out loud as they go. They cover one coin with their hand. You turn round and tell them whether it is heads or tails. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 7 to 12 (grades 2nd–6th), takes 10 minutes to learn, and needs one thing you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
Count the heads showing before you turn away. Every flip changes that count by one, so if you know how many flips there were you know what the count should be now. Whatever is missing is under their hand.
What you need
A coin
How to do it
Spread six six coins on the table and count how many are heads up.
Turn your back and ask them to flip any coins they like, saying "flip" each time.
Count their flips in your head. Odd or even, that is all.
Ask them to cover one six coins with a hand, then turn round.
Count the heads you can see, work out what is missing, and name it.
Magic words to say
“I can't see a thing, I promise. Flip as many as you want, I'm only listening. Now put your hand over one. ...It's tails, isn't it. I could hear it being tails.”
Pro tips
Practise with four coins until the counting is automatic, then move up to six. The maths is easy; doing it while chatting is the bit that takes a go or two.
Ask them to say "flip" out loud each time. It sounds like fairness and it is how you count.
Do it twice and get it right both times. Once is luck to an audience; twice is mind reading.
If something goes wrong
If you lose count, say "do five more flips and say them slowly". You can start your count again from what you see when you turn round.
Safety notes
Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.
Coins are a choking risk for little ones under 4: keep them off the floor and out of small hands.
Sit at a table.
Only from the front.
No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.
Why it works
Turning one coin over always changes the number of heads by exactly one, up or down. So the odd-or-even of that count flips with every single turn, and after an even number of flips it is back where it started. Knowing what it should be, and seeing what it is, leaves only the covered coin to explain the difference.
What kind of trick is this?
🔮 Prediction. You knew all along, or you read their mind. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.
The skill it teaches:Your magician name. Every magician has a stage name and a style. Perform it and it counts towards the Coin Conjurer badge.
Questions about the heads or tails mind reader
How do magicians read minds?
They don't hear your thoughts. Mind-reading tricks use maths that always lands on the same answer, a secret peek, or a code agreed with a partner beforehand. Magicians who do mind tricks are called mentalists.
Can you do magic with no props?
Yes, and those are the handiest tricks you can own, because you always have them with you. Number tricks need nothing but your voice, and some illusions need only your hands.