my new Jail/prison key, let's see yours!

[grit1]

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This is a detention key apparently made by (or sold by) Pauly Jail Building Company. It is from a jail that was finished in 1923. It is made of what I think is stainless steel, as it is mildly magnetic, but not terribly so.

Has anyone else ever seen a lever tumbler detention key that wasn't warded? This one is completely flat. This makes it very difficult to operate in the lock.

[mercurial]

Whilst that key looks to have been used in a detention facility, it is not a cell door key. The symmetry apparent in the cuts means it was made to operate from both sides of a lock - not a feature of cell door keys!

It may be a key for a sally-port.

...Mark