Precious Metals

If they go and recount all the gold in Fort Knox, what will it do to the gold price if it's either correct or some is missing - will that have much of an effect?
I would guess that if there is a big shortage, that would drive the price up, but if the full reserve is there (or if there is more than the official amount, as some have speculated), then the price would go down from current levels.
 
Gathering a few points from the 3 videos in @Caduceus post above: the 1971 visit was no audit (they only visited one of 150+ vaults), there had not been a previous visit to Ft. Knox since the 1930s, the 1971 visit was done under much speculation that the vaults had been cleaned out (similar to today). I have to wonder, has a true audit been performed since the 1930s, or ever? Understanding this is not the type of thing you want to review monthly (the less it is handled, the better), one would think an every-decade or so audit would do the trick.

Even if all the inventoried USG gold is present, how does that account for the multiple derivative tools in the financial market? Particularly the tools against the holdings at the COMEX and LBMA, outside of Ft. Knox?
 
If they go and recount all the gold in Fort Knox, what will it do to the gold price if it's either correct or some is missing - will that have much of an effect?

The immediate effect of any audit at fort knox that results in any big discrepancies on the officially declared holdings, will be on the value of the US Dollar, not on the price of gold (although that will of course follow soon after). So the audit will hurt or help the US economy more than anything else.
 
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Gathering a few points from the 3 videos in @Caduceus post above: the 1971 visit was no audit (they only visited one of 150+ vaults), there had not been a previous visit to Ft. Knox since the 1930s, the 1971 visit was done under much speculation that the vaults had been cleaned out (similar to today). I have to wonder, has a true audit been performed since the 1930s, or ever? Understanding this is not the type of thing you want to review monthly (the less it is handled, the better), one would think an every-decade or so audit would do the trick.

The press visit documented in those videos I posted was in 1974, not 1971.
But yes, there was no real audit in 1974...they just opened 1 door to 1 tiny room, took some pictures and videos, and then were quickly kicked out.

I have no idea if a real count and test of the entire holdings at fort knox has ever been done after they were put there in the mid 1930s . A seriously done audit would take many months, possibly up to a year....the problem isn't just moving and counting the thousands of gold bars, it's also doing tests to see if its real gold, rather than some other metal. The current treasury secretary recently said an audit is done every year, but that's just based on paper documents....no bars are actually moved and counted and tested.

Finally, Fort Knox only holds roughly HALF of the US gold reserves...the rest is stored in other vaults in West Point and Denver.
(The gold bars in New York belong are owned by about 36 different foreign nations who keep it there for "safekeeping")

If Trump and Musk are really serious about an audit of all the government gold stored in the USA, they would have all 4 locations audited simultaneously to avoid shell games with the bars.


See here for the other 3 locations where gold holdings are stored in the USA:



 
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Back to the do you accept gold? topic..

I'm adapting this to imperial units and US$ for the Americans..

Apparently a US$100 bill is 0.0043" thick
Not as thick as a US$10 bill :

Not sure I noticed that difference in thickness last time I was in the US.

30 of the US$100 bills would measure 0.129" thick which is 1/8 " and 6 1/8 " wide by 2 5/8" high

A 24 carat (not carrot) one ounce American buffalo coin is 1 5/16 " wide and 1/8 " thick

The US$100 bill weighs 0.04 ounces so 30 of them is 1.2 ounces.

Point is, the gold is more compact and lighter than the same value of US$100 bills.

What happens to American money if you forget to take it out of your pocket and goes through the washing machine..
 
Back to the do you accept gold? topic..

I'm adapting this to imperial units and US$ for the Americans..

Apparently a US$100 bill is 0.0043" thick
Not as thick as a US$10 bill :

Not sure I noticed that difference in thickness last time I was in the US.

30 of the US$100 bills would measure 0.129" thick which is 1/8 " and 6 1/8 " wide by 2 5/8" high

A 24 carat (not carrot) one ounce American buffalo coin is 1 5/16 " wide and 1/8 " thick

The US$100 bill weighs 0.04 ounces so 30 of them is 1.2 ounces.

Point is, the gold is more compact and lighter than the same value of US$100 bills.

What happens to American money if you forget to take it out of your pocket and goes through the washing machine..
The paper used for $US is fairly durable, and it comes through the washer and dryer cycle intact. Naturally people avoid doing this if possible, but whenever I've left cash in my pocket by accident, it came through fine. The color doesn't really fade or anything.
 
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