US gold reserves in question of existence

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The gold reserve of a country, or, in other words, a gold reserve, is a concentrated reserve of gold in one place, obtained through mining or acquired by exchanging banknotes quantitatively equivalent to gold bars.

Such a stock is contained, as a rule, in the format of ingots and coins. It is directly under the jurisdiction of the National State Bank. The world reserve of countries plays the role of an indicator of the solvency of a country, and today it is expressed in United States dollars. Today, the US gold reserves surpass the rest of the states and amount to 8,133.46 tons.

What is the real gold reserve of the United States, where is it actually stored and is it available at all? These and many other questions concerning America's gold and foreign exchange fund are of concern to many.

Undoubtedly, it is only because of the large amount of gold reserves that America is considered a world power and the dollar is the world currency. It is the amount of gold available in the United States that plays a large role in the index of the solvency and reliability of the dollar currency.

This precious yellow metal is still the benchmark for wealth and power. The undisputed leader in terms of gold reserves is undoubtedly the United States of America.

Where and how is America's gold reserve kept?

The main holders of deposits remain:

• the Denver Mint, which stores about 1,400 tons of metal;
• Cash vault at West Point, where another share of the capital is located - approximately 1,700 tons;
• The FRB underground storerooms located in the Manhattan area contain 400 tons of ingots;
• Well, at the most mysterious and highly classified object, built during the war - Fort Knox, the lion's share of the gold reserve in the amount of 4603 tons of precious metal is stored.

Fort Knox gold nuggets are called "America's gold bins", and the rest of the gold deposited in other depositories is mentioned in reports only in passing, and is called "other treasury gold."

The military facility inherited its name from the first Minister of War - Henry Knox. The base is located in the state of Kentucky. Because of the huge moat located around the fort, it is also called an impregnable fortress.

The first and closest competitor of America is Germany, which has less than half the gold in its arsenal, although this figure equates to the same 70% of the capital as America.

The reason for the gossip, which may have a real background, that all the objects that store US gold are empty, was Germany. It was thanks to the export of Germany's gold reserves stored in America and two other European countries, which began a couple of years ago, that financial chaos began, which, in turn, marked the fall of the Jones index in the American economy, when people who took out a mortgage had to give their houses to banks where the loan was issued.

Upon the return of capital in the form of gold bars and coins, an operational plan was developed, which was calculated for the period until 2020. Thanks to him, about five tons of precious metals were removed from the US stocks. After some time, it was decided to abandon this plan.

Many media outlets and some specialists from different departments were forced to draw conclusions not in favor of the American authorities, making assumptions that there was nothing in America's bins. The news of the loss of German gold excited the entire political elite of the country, a world scandal almost broke out, this news was fueled by the fact that German auditors were not even allowed to inspect the gold reserves.

American safety stocks

It was during the Great Depression, thanks to the instruction to deprivatize gold, that the entire American population had to surrender their gold jewelry at a reduced price, which helped to collect the lion's share of the gold reserve. The main stock was collected during the Second World War and increased to fabulous proportions. In the future, it was these gold and foreign exchange reserves that supported the stability of America's currency.

In the bins of America, not only the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the USA itself are stored, but also the gold of countries friendly to America. Some states do not store their gold in America in full, and some keep all their gold reserves there.

It is not possible to find out how much gold is actually contained in American vaults, since all the data are kept secret. An audit, which could show the real amount of gold, was carried out last time in post-war times. At the present time, the Americans themselves do their best to prevent such an audit.

The existence of a real gold reserve in America's bins is increasingly being questioned. The situation that happened to the German gold contained in America was one of the factors proving the absence of gold in Fort Knox, as well as in the vault located in the Manhattan area.

Initially, the American authorities took all the necessary measures to delay negotiations on the issue of a gold reserve belonging to Germany. Subsequently, within a year, they nevertheless returned a small part of the gold, but at the same time not allowing a single representative of the country to enter the vault.

The denouement of the entire epic was unexpected for all participants: Germany suddenly abandons its goal of exporting gold and declares publicly that it trusts the American authorities, and the process of exporting its gold and foreign exchange reserves turned out to be a costly affair.

The actions of America and Germany proved that the actual presence of bullion in the vaults was doubtful. Another argument indicating the lack of gold reserves was an event that went beyond human understanding, namely, the gold bars that America returned to Germany turned out to be completely different from those that Germany gave for safekeeping. Many media outlets assumed that the American authorities had long spent the gold reserves of Germany, and, in order to avoid a scandal, purchased another metal for smelting ingots.

Nobody knows how things really are with German gold. There are no confirmed data on the absence of a gold reserve, in principle, as well as refuted ones. In this regard, it is unrealistic to draw conclusions about whether there is gold in general and in what quantities, just as it is unrealistic to understand whether Germany will return gold to itself at all.

And again a scandal

Another scandalous event related to the US gold and foreign exchange reserve, which occurred earlier, was the sale of fake gold bars to China. These ingots were cast from a tungsten alloy and covered with a thin layer of gold, which was revealed when checking a batch of gold sent to assess the composition of the metal and specific gravity.

The Chinese government's assertion that the bullion was fake prompted one of America's congressmen to insist on checking the vaults. The US authorities in every possible way prevented this, which could not but agitate the world community.

As a result of the investigation carried out by China in relation to counterfeit bars, it was revealed that the forgeries were cast exclusively in America itself, and they were located in Fort Knox. Thanks to the registration data on the bullion, it was safe to say that they were delivered from the banks of the Federal Reserve System during the reign of Bill Clinton.

The number of forgeries numbered in the millions. Not only did China suffer from the acquisition of counterfeits, but the entire international market in which the remnants of the counterfeits were sold. For this, the sale was soon dubbed the "Clinton Golden Scam", because the substitution of America's real gold and foreign exchange reserves for a batch of fakes was a fraudulent move for the international precious metals market. There is an opinion that the batch of fakes, as before, is located in the US vaults.

The assumptions of the world community that America does not have gold turned out to be correct, based on the dialogue between Republican Congressman Ron Paul and Federal Reserve Commissioner Alvarez.

Alvarez said in an interview that the federal reserve system does not have gold in general - only gold and foreign exchange certificates accepted from the US Treasury are reflected on the institution's deposit.

What is the relationship between the two government agencies remains unclear. Today, having no real gold reserve in the Fed, the American currency is practically not supported by anything. In such conditions, the dollar retains its influence on the securities market only due to the trusting relations of the players themselves. With the loss of this trusting relationship, the dollar will collapse. America's fake gold reserves will not save the situation.

Any demands from Germany or any other state for the return of gold reserves mean big expenses for America to buy gold. The gold reserve of all countries is a reserve of real gold, the formation of which gives the state the opportunity to preserve its economy.

The gold reserves of the favorite countries

Today the USA, Germany and the EU countries have the most significant gold reserves.

America's current supply was laid back during the Great Depression. But mining of this metal began back in the days of the gold rush. In 1933, a decree was issued in the United States, on the basis of which the state bought all personal items made of gold at a reduced value.

In the United States, not only the personal reserves of citizens are stored, but also the ingots of other states. The beginning of this was laid at the beginning of the Second World War. Some states, fearing the invasion of the Nazis, brought all the gold to America for safekeeping.

In the tables below, you can see the growth of gold in each country in the top ten. Naturally, the USA is in the first place of the podium.

Two anti-favorites for gold reserves

The lowest gold and foreign exchange reserves are in Mexico and Ukraine.

It is difficult to say anything precise about Mexico - everything is too confusing. But as far as Ukraine is concerned, everything is clear and understandable here. Since 1999, and to this day, Ukraine's gold reserves have been decreasing in a catastrophic progression, which is undoubtedly facilitated by the events in the east of Ukraine and conflicts in the government.

In 2014, there was a massive export of gold, which threatened Ukraine with the collapse of the economy. When Ukraine's assets were divided between the government and local oligarchs, a huge scandal almost erupted. The situation was mitigated only by a cash tranche from America.

So will there be an audit?

How much gold is stored in the United States, no one knows exactly. To clarify this issue, an audit is required. A random check was carried out in 2012, and the results of this check amazed everyone with their brevity.

The report said that the verification was successful, the gold was calculated and its value was equal to a certain number of millions, and all of it was several hundred tons. That's all the information. So nothing is concrete and unknown.

But now-elected new President Trump has vowed to deal with the matter. He is sure that there is actually no gold anymore. The new US president, as he himself put it, will strive to restore the former value of his country's currency.

I would like to note that Russia is one of the few countries whose gold reserves are kept exclusively in Russia.