"Before and after" poses depicted within the artwork on T. Nelson Downs' antique poster suggest an antecedent to a fingertips coins across theme.

If I have found anything to be true in life it is that eventually, all that is old can be new again except for me.

I highly doubt Downs did a fingertips coins across. That was simply a pose with the coins held at the fingertips. Had Downs done this sort of trick there surely would have been an account or mention of it somewhere other than a visual depiction in a poster. Kaufman commented on this exact issue years ago by saying "Shall I assume that all magicians used to wear lipstick just because their lips have color in old magic posters? I think not!" lol

You can listen to what Roth says, on the New York Coin Magic Seminar DVD on coins across, where he discusses Downs.

Yes I've read that Roth believes the Downs Poster suggests Downs performed the fingertips coins across. Without written evidence of this performance I'm not sure I would feel comfortable believing that anymore than I would that the Egyptians performed the cups and balls because of a drawing. To each his own though...

Well, one of the things that Roth said, was that Downs used to catch a coin at the tip of his coin wand and then toss it to the fingertips of his other hand. Someone remarked that the wand looked like a gimmick, so he did the same thing without the wand. I can't tell you what reference he used for that, but I will ask him next time we speak.

I would be very interested in hearing more about that Doc!
I had never heard that before. One of many reasons why I wish I could make it out to the seminar this year. Sigh.....

You can read about the coin wand item in Bobo's. Any number of coins produced from thin air at the tip of his wand in one hand, flicked off the tip of the wand and appearing in a fan at the fingertips of the other hand. If you try this you can get a feel for how it was handled and played for an audience. If you put that with his "mercury coin" item you could almost imagine him doing what later became the Copenetro.