The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 21, May 27, 2007, Article 30

SILVER COINS AND THE MANHATTAN PROJECT

My chat with Harry Mernicks at the British Numismatic Society meeting
turned to the topic of the large quantity of silver used in The
Manhattan Project which created the first nuclear weapon.  Harry
had seen a reference to this and wondered if it were actually silver
coins that had been melted for the project.   As often happens, I
discovered that we had touched on the topic in an earlier E-Sylum.

 ATOMIC NUMISMATICS
 esylum_v06n23a21.html

But the E-Sylum item doesn't settle the issue of whether coins were
actually involved.  I checked the Internet for other sources and
learned a few more details.

"Huge amounts of material had to be obtained (38 million board feet
of lumber, for instance), and the magnets needed so much copper for
windings that the Army had to borrow almost 15,000 tons of silver
bullion from the United States Treasury to fabricate into strips and
wind on to coils as a substitute for copper.31 Treasury silver was
also used to manufacture the busbars that ran around the top of the
racetracks."
Full Story

"The first shipment of silver bullion was made from the West Point
Bullion Depository in October 1942 to the Defense Plant Corporation
at Carteret, N.J. There the silver bars were reformed as cylindrical
billets. Then came another secret trip, this time across New Jersey
to the Phelps Dodge copper plant at Bayway, where the billets were
rolled into strips 5/8 of an inch thick, 3 inches wide and 40 feet
long. A third stage to the journey sent the newly-rolled strips to
Milwaukee, where the Allis Chalmers Company wound them with wooden
insulation around giant steel spools and encased them in another
steel unit. The completed units, resembling 19-square-foot doughnuts,
were then shipped to the Y-12 Plant.
Full Story

[These documents give confirmation that large quantities of silver
from the U.S. Treasury were used in the Manhattan Project. They state
that the silver was shipped in bar form, but make no mention of coins.
Would coins have been melted to create the bars?  Well, I doubt it -
these bars probably came from strategic stockpiles.  Has anyone ever
comes across a reference to this silver transfer in government
records?   Any indication that coins were actually involved?
-Editor]

Found while looking for other things: a Manhattan Project silver lapel pin:
Manhattan Project silver lapel pin

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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