6 ms·

Question though, does Fort Knox gold still exist?

by 1-6 5y ago

heavyset_go 5y ago
6k tons of gold is held in Manhattan by the Federal Reserve: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-has-6-200-tons-of-gold-in-a-manhattan-basementor-does-it-1502382644 https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-has-6-200-tons-of-gold-...
- jcranmer 5y ago
  My understanding is that most of that gold isn't the US's, but other countries' gold that the US is holding for them (because securing tons of gold isn't easy).
  - germinalphrase 5y ago
    “ because securing tons of gold isn't easy” Why not?
    - lazide 5y ago
      People are surprisingly motivated to try to steal generalized stores of value that are untraceable? Especially when it’s worth a lot in even small quantities. So everyone from guards to govts would love to get their hands on it. 6000 tons of gold is worth around 384 billion dollars.
      - germinalphrase 5y ago
        If you’re able to topple governments, sure. Interesting question to consider how they might make gold more traceable. They must dope it with traceable elements, yes?
        paulpauper 5y ago
        yes, but then you could still mix it with enough untainted gold to have plausible deniability. Gold is like everting bitcoin wishes it were.
        lazide 5y ago
        Well, if you succeeded in stealing it, some gov’ts would definitely topple. The real question is, has some of it been stolen already? Not like anyone would want to say if it has been. heist movie music starts
      - paulpauper 5y ago
        u cannot get your hand on enough gold to make it worth the criminal penalties. that stuff is heavy
        lazide 5y ago
        What if you could sneak off with some every day with no one noticing? The criminal penalties are heavy and the investment in countermeasures is extreme BECAUSE the motivation/enticement and payoff is high.
    - jchanimal 5y ago
      It's too dense. It will literally sink into the soft London bedrock. New York is lucky to have granite bedrock so they can stack the gold higher.
      - paulpauper 5y ago
        then spread it out? this does not seem like that hard of an engineering problem. store it in the desert or mountains where land is cheap and abundant.
    - colechristensen 5y ago
      Hundreds of billions of dollars of gold would be a decent motivation to go to war. If Manhattan fell to a foreign power in war, it wouldn't be such a bad bet to say that human extinction would be not far behind. Ukraine's locally held bank reserves could possibly be lost to Russia in a matter of weeks. Plenty of countries want to increase the faith in their local currency by storing reserves somewhere which would be among the last to be lost to war.
yellow_postit 5y ago
Yes! “ 147.3 million ounces. About half of the Treasury’s stored gold (as well as valuables of other federal agencies) is kept at Fort Knox” https://www.usmint.gov/about/mint-tours-facilities/fort-knox https://www.usmint.gov/about/mint-tours-facilities/fort-knox
krallja 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Depository https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Deposito... “… currently holds roughly 147 million troy ounces (4,580 metric tons) of gold bullion, over half of the Treasury's stored gold.”
- WalterGR 5y ago
  > (4,580 metric tons) Somehow I always forget the actual (as opposed to figurative) definition of metric ton: “unit of weight equal to 1,000 kilograms (2,205 lbs)” So 4,580 metric tons is 4,580,000 kg (10,098,900 lbs.) That’s… a decent amount of gold. > gold bullion Bullion: “uncoined gold or silver in bars or ingots.” Random page that lists heavy objects: https://247wallst.com/special-report/2018/05/11/the-heaviest-objects-in-the-world/ https://247wallst.com/special-report/2018/05/11/the-heaviest... (Interestingly it includes a lot of objects related to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, even though the article was written 4 years ago.)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Question though, does Fort Knox gold still exist?

by 1-6 5y ago

Question though, does Fort Knox gold still exist?

6k tons of gold is held in Manhattan by the Federal Reserve: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-has-6-200-tons-of-gold-in-a-manhattan-basementor-does-it-1502382644 https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-fed-has-6-200-tons-of-gold-...

jcranmer 5y ago
My understanding is that most of that gold isn't the US's, but other countries' gold that the US is holding for them (because securing tons of gold isn't easy).
- germinalphrase 5y ago
  “ because securing tons of gold isn't easy” Why not?
  - lazide 5y ago
    People are surprisingly motivated to try to steal generalized stores of value that are untraceable? Especially when it’s worth a lot in even small quantities. So everyone from guards to govts would love to get their hands on it. 6000 tons of gold is worth around 384 billion dollars.
    - germinalphrase 5y ago
      If you’re able to topple governments, sure. Interesting question to consider how they might make gold more traceable. They must dope it with traceable elements, yes?
      - paulpauper 5y ago
        yes, but then you could still mix it with enough untainted gold to have plausible deniability. Gold is like everting bitcoin wishes it were.
      - lazide 5y ago
        Well, if you succeeded in stealing it, some gov’ts would definitely topple. The real question is, has some of it been stolen already? Not like anyone would want to say if it has been. heist movie music starts
    - paulpauper 5y ago
      u cannot get your hand on enough gold to make it worth the criminal penalties. that stuff is heavy
      - lazide 5y ago
        What if you could sneak off with some every day with no one noticing? The criminal penalties are heavy and the investment in countermeasures is extreme BECAUSE the motivation/enticement and payoff is high.
  - jchanimal 5y ago
    It's too dense. It will literally sink into the soft London bedrock. New York is lucky to have granite bedrock so they can stack the gold higher.
    - paulpauper 5y ago
      then spread it out? this does not seem like that hard of an engineering problem. store it in the desert or mountains where land is cheap and abundant.
  - colechristensen 5y ago
    Hundreds of billions of dollars of gold would be a decent motivation to go to war. If Manhattan fell to a foreign power in war, it wouldn't be such a bad bet to say that human extinction would be not far behind. Ukraine's locally held bank reserves could possibly be lost to Russia in a matter of weeks. Plenty of countries want to increase the faith in their local currency by storing reserves somewhere which would be among the last to be lost to war.

yellow_postit 5y ago

Yes! “ 147.3 million ounces. About half of the Treasury’s stored gold (as well as valuables of other federal agencies) is kept at Fort Knox” https://www.usmint.gov/about/mint-tours-facilities/fort-knox https://www.usmint.gov/about/mint-tours-facilities/fort-knox

krallja 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Depository https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bullion_Deposito... “… currently holds roughly 147 million troy ounces (4,580 metric tons) of gold bullion, over half of the Treasury's stored gold.”

WalterGR 5y ago
> (4,580 metric tons) Somehow I always forget the actual (as opposed to figurative) definition of metric ton: “unit of weight equal to 1,000 kilograms (2,205 lbs)” So 4,580 metric tons is 4,580,000 kg (10,098,900 lbs.) That’s… a decent amount of gold. > gold bullion Bullion: “uncoined gold or silver in bars or ingots.” Random page that lists heavy objects: https://247wallst.com/special-report/2018/05/11/the-heaviest-objects-in-the-world/ https://247wallst.com/special-report/2018/05/11/the-heaviest... (Interestingly it includes a lot of objects related to the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, even though the article was written 4 years ago.)

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]