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For a country like France it would be on the order of hundreds or a thousand tons. So that’s maybe on the order of hundred trips by delivery trucks at most. Yea
by rdtsc 6mo ago
For a country like France it would be on the order of hundreds or a thousand tons. So that’s maybe on the order of hundred trips by delivery trucks at most. Yeah I suppose spread out over a few years it wouldn’t be noticed. At least not by the general public. But since the claim is that this triggered the collapse of the Bretton Woods system it would be documented and referenced a lot more, still.
- lazide 6mo agoMost delivery trucks (like a box truck) have capacities more like 10 or 20 tons. A heavy freight truck, like used to load ships? Even more.
- _heimdall 6mo agoWas that the case in the 60s as well? I know trucks of that era had much lower capacity than today, even when comparing across class like "half-ton" trucks.
- vel0city 6mo agoThe Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 set the gross vehicle weight limit for trucks at 73,280lbs. I imagine trucks of the day probably at least came close to that limit? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_trucking_industry_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_trucking_indust...
- _heimdall 6mo agoThat was likely targeting tractor trailers of the era though, not box trucks.
- bigfishrunning 6mo agoA half-ton truck is a consumer pick-up truck, not a commercial shipping vehicle. Much much smaller.
- _heimdall 6mo agoYes I understand, that's why I was asking about box trucks of the day. I'll dig into it myself as I am curious now, I've only ever really looked into cab-over bread trucks from that era and those aren't a great comparison either. I was just curious if the GP already knew what 60s era box trucks would have been rated for.
- rdtsc 6mo agoYup that's what I had in mind, a 60s city delivery truck, not a semi, so googled that and came up to about 10t.
- jjk166 6mo agoThe gold would be moved by cash-in-transit trucks which have relatively modest payload capacities of 5000-9000lbs today, a bit less in the 60s. 3 tons per truck is probably on the high end.
- therealpygon 6mo agoYou don’t generally just throw gold in a box truck… it typically moves by armored freight.
- oasisbob 6mo agoMaybe in some volumes, but I think most people would be shocked by the overall volume of gold that moves by UPS in small brown boxes.
- bruckie 6mo agoThe Hope diamond was famously transported by... USPS. "The postage cost him $2.44, plus $142.85 for $1 million worth of insurance." —https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamond.pdf https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/hope-diamon...