Effect:
Two $20 bills are obtained from the audience. Both are dipped into a clear colourless liquid. Both are placed over a flame and are burned. The first bill is burned to ashes. The second bill comes out of the fire untouched.

What You Need:
- a real $20 bill
- a fake $20 bill made on a colour photocopier
- two 500 mL beakers
- ethanol
- methanol
- water
- tongs
- a flame source
- ashtray.

What You Do Before the Show:
- Prepare a fake $20 bill
- "Plant" the fake $20 with someone in the audience
- Prepare 300 mL of a 2:1 ethanol-water solution
- Place the solution in one beaker
- Place 300 mL of methanol (or ethanol) into the other beaker
- Place the methanol/ethanol beaker directly in front of the other.

What You Do During the Show:
- Ask for two $20 bills from the audience; one will come from a true volunteer, the other from the "plant"
- With tongs, dip the fake $20 bill into the methanol/ethanol beaker while trying to make it look like it is in the same solution as before;
- Hold the bill over a flame;
- Hold the flaming bill in front of you and swing it back and forth;
- Drop the ashes onto an ash tray on the table;
- With tongs, dip the real $20 bill into the ethanol-water beaker;
- Hold the bill over a flame;
- Hold the flaming bill in front of you and swing it back and forth;
- After fire is out, show that the bill is dry (actually slightly damp) and not burned.

What is Happening:
- As the ethanol burns, the water present evaporates, thus drawing heat away from the paper of the bill.

Hazards:
- Methanol and ethanol are flamable
- A flaming piece of paper is a severe fire hazard
- Keep the audience away from this fire source.

Patter:
- The Wizard will demonstrate a modern technique for determining if a bill is counterfit or not.
- Use what ever method you can think of to get two people to volunteer a $20 bill. Prearrange for the "plant" to volunteer that bill second.
- Burn the fake bill first - this test shows that it was counterfit. Apologize to the volunteer. But add that legally it was worthless anyway.
- Burn the real bill second, but tell the audience that you will dip it into the same test solution as before. (It's not true, but then magicians misdirect you all the time.)
- This test shows that it is real.

- Forget to return it to the volunteer and stick it in your pocket.