MANHATTAN PROJECT
by Bill Myers

At the 2021 MPC E-FEST my presentation was about coins melted for war materiel during World War II. It was brought up that I did not include the fact that the United States as the US Mint provided silver for the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project needed enriched uranium for the atomic bomb. The United States built Plant Y-12 in Oak Ridge, TN. It used electromagnets to separate U-235 (weapons grade) from U-238. The coils of magnets are usually made of copper but copper was critical for the manufacture of war materiel so it was not available. Silver has an electroconductivity that is similar to copper. 14,700 tons of silver were borrowed from the US mint to make the coils.

The silver was returned to the US Mint on 1 June 1970 with a loss of 36/1000 of 1%. The silver was from bullion stores and coins were not melted to produce the atomic bomb, even though stated in older references. No coins were harmed in the making of the atomic bomb.

For more information, see:
The Manhattan Project(https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/manhattan-project)

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To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
ATOMIC NUMISMATICS(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v06n23a21.html)
SILVER COINS AND THE MANHATTAN PROJECT(https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n21a30.html)