Treasury report details U.S. gold reserve supply in government vaults

The West Point Mint, which stores the nation’s second highest quantity of gold, first opened its doors as the West Point Silver Bullion Depository in 1938.

Images courtesy of the United States Mint.

 

The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, continues to be the primary storage facility for the nation’s gold reserves, followed by the West Point Mint, north of the U.S. Military Academy in New York.

According to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, as of Nov. 30, 2024, the Fort Knox vaults held 147,341,858,382 troy ounces of at least .9995 fine gold, with a book value of $6,221,097,412.78.

The gold in deep storage is held as an asset of the United States at a book value of $42.22 per troy ounce. The book value has been a constant $42 2/9, or $42.2222, per fine troy ounce since 1973, according to the Treasury Department.

This statutory price of gold, set by law, does not fluctuate with the market price of gold.

That statutory price per troy ounce determines the total book value of the gold assets held by the Treasury. A troy ounce is a historic unit of measure used for precious metals. It is 31.1034768 grams, or approximately 10% more than the 28.35 grams of a standard (avoirdupois) ounce.

Book value is the price of gold assets at purchase, and market value is the price of gold assets if sold.

The market value of the gold held at Fort Knox, using the Jan. 6 closing London market price of gold at $2,633.35 per troy ounce, totals $388,002,682,770.24.

Historically, the most gold held at Fort Knox was 649.6 million troy ounces, as of Dec. 31, 1941, which was 24 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Gold held in deep storage at Fort Knox and any of the coin production facilities is stored in vaults in the form of gold bars of at least .9995 fine purity.

Specifications for a standard gold bar are approximately 400 troy ounces, or 27.5 standard (avoirdupois) pounds. Each bar measures 7 inches by 3.625 inches by 1.75 inches.

Some of the Mint’s production facilities store gold as working stock for eventual use in the production of legal tender coins.

Gold in deep storage is held in the form of gold bars, in vaults. Gold in working stock is held in the form of bars and blanks and is used for minting new currency.

The Nov. 30, 2024, reconciliation of government-held gold, indicates the following holdings in troy ounces, in addition to that at Fort Knox:
* Denver Mint deep storage gold bullion: 43,853,707.279 ounces, book value $1,851,599,995.81.
* West Point Mint deep storage, gold bullion: 56,067,331.379 ounces, book value $2,282,841,677.17.
* All locations working stock (gold coins, blanks, miscellaneous): 2,783,218.656 ounces, book value $117,513,614.74.
* Federal Reserve Bank, New York City vault, gold bullion: 13,376,987.724 ounces, book value $564,805,851.07.
* Federal Reserve Bank displays, bullion: 1,993.321 ounces, book value $84,162.40.
* Federal Reserve Bank, New York City vault, gold coins: 73,452.066 ounces, book value $3,102,307.82.
* Federal Reserve Banks display, gold coins: 377.434 ounces, book value $15,936.11.

Accounting for the nation’s gold assets under Treasury Department jurisdiction can be found online at https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/status-report-government-gold-reserve/u-s-treasury-owned-gold.

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