Silver slugs
The silver slugs were two small, hand-cast balls of silver, each roughly the size of a ball bearing, that the Losers' Club created in late July 1958 as their primary weapon against the entity haunting Derry. They were the tangible result of Bill Denbrough's idea to use silver—a traditional monster-killing substance—against the shape-shifting creature, and they marked the moment when the children's collective belief in magic became a concrete, effective force.
Origin and Creation
The idea for silver ammunition originated with Bill Denbrough, who, after researching at the Derry Public Library, proposed making silver bullets to use against the entity. Ben Hanscom provided the raw material: four silver dollars that had belonged to his late father, which he had inherited. After Bill grew nervous about the complexity and potential misfire of making actual bullets, the group decided on a simpler approach. Ben, Richie Tozier, and Bill spent time at the library researching how to make bearings, and Bill and Richie purchased two steel bearing molds from Carl Kitchener at Kitchener Precision Tool & Die for fifty cents each. On the night of July 23rd, 1958, while Bill's parents were at a double feature at the Aladdin Theater, the Losers gathered in Zack Denbrough's workshop. Ben used a blowtorch to melt one of the silver dollars in a cut-down mortar shell that served as a makeshift crucible. He poured the molten silver through a homemade funnel into the molds, creating two small, round slugs. After they hardened, Ben opened the molds with a chisel, revealing the finished slugs. On one, the faint remnants of the date "1925" were visible; on the other, wavering lines that Beverly thought looked like Lady Liberty's hair. The group passed the slugs around, each of them marveling at their weight and reality, before Bill gave them to Beverly, who was the best shot with his Bullseye slingshot.
Use Against the Werewolf
On July 25th, 1958, the Losers' Club entered the house at 29 Neibolt Street, determined to confront the entity. Beverly carried the Bullseye with one silver slug already socketed in the cup and the other in her pocket. When the creature emerged from the bathroom drainpipe in the form of a werewolf, it attacked Ben Hanscom, ripping open his chest and stomach. As the werewolf lunged at Bill, Beverly drew and fired. Her first shot missed, punching a hole in the wallpaper. As the werewolf turned toward her, Ben stepped in front of her, blocking her field of fire. While Ben struggled with the creature, Beverly retrieved the second slug from her tight jeans pocket, and a clear, cold certainty fell over her. She tracked the werewolf's head as it moved, and when it finally came into the wishbone of the drawn-back sling, she released. The silver ball struck the werewolf high in the center of its snout, creating a perfect round hole. The creature screamed in pain and surprise, blood gouting from the wound in a high-pressure torrent. It turned and dived back into the drainpipe, its shape melting and changing as it fled. The silver slugs had not killed it, but they had driven it back, proving that the children's belief in the power of silver could hurt the entity.
Symbolic Significance
The silver slugs were more than just ammunition; they were a physical manifestation of the Losers' collective faith and their first successful act of resistance against the entity. The process of creating them—from Ben's inherited silver dollars to the careful casting in Bill's father's workshop—was a ritual of preparation and bonding. The slugs worked not because of any inherent property of the metal, but because the seven children believed they would. As Ben later reflected, the power of the slugs came from their unified belief, a power that could make dreams real and turn a simple ball of silver into a weapon against a nightmare. The slugs' success at Neibolt Street gave the Losers the confidence to continue their fight, leading to the final confrontation in the sewers. In the end, the remaining silver dollar was never used for its intended purpose; instead, the memory of the slugs and the power they represented became a symbol of the children's lost childhood and the magic they could no longer access as adults.
