US gold reserves. The Rise and Fall of the American Gold Rush

A country's gold reserves, or, in other words, gold reserves, are considered to be a concentrated supply of gold in one place, obtained through mining or acquired through the exchange of banknotes quantitatively equivalent to gold bars.

This stock is usually held in the form of bars and coins. Is directly under the jurisdiction of the National State Bank. The world stock of countries plays the role of an indicator of the solvency of a country, and is currently expressed in United States dollars. Today, the US gold reserves exceed other countries and amount to 8,133.46 tons.

What exactly is the gold reserve of the United States, where is it actually stored and is it even available? These and many other questions regarding America's gold and foreign exchange fund concern many.

Undoubtedly, it is only thanks to 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 big role in the index of the wealth and reliability of the dollar currency.

This precious yellow metal still remains the standard of 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 reserves contained?

The main deposit holders remain:

• a mint located in Denver, where about 1,400 tons of metal are stored;
• The money vault at West Point, where another share of the capital is located - approximately 1,700 tons;
• 400 tons of bullion are stored in the Federal Reserve's underground vaults located in the Manhattan area;
• Well, at the most mysterious and top-secret facility, built during the war, Fort Knox, the lion’s share of the gold reserves in the amount of 4,603 tons of the precious metal is stored.

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

The military facility inherited its name from the first Secretary of War, Henry Knox. The base is located in the state of Kentucky. Due to the huge moat located around the fort, it is also called an impenetrable fortress.

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

US Gold Vault

The basis for the rumors, which may have a real basis, that all objects storing US gold are empty, was Germany. It was thanks to the export of German gold reserves stored in America and two other European countries that 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 loan had to give their homes 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 metal were removed from US reserves. After some time, the decision was made to abandon this plan.

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

A little history

Fort Knox was built as a depository in 1936, and it was built urgently, because President Roosevelt, who was in power at that time, began to withdraw gold from circulation by buying it from the population. Most of the precious metal came from banks, which were provided with so-called “gold certificates” and credited to their balance sheets. All monetary reserves kept by citizens were taken away, with the exception of dental and jewelry. So much gold had accumulated that the US Mint in Philadelphia could not provide its maintenance and protection; the need arose for a new storage location, and the choice fell on the military camp of Fort Knox.

A train from Philadelphia delivered the first gold reserve to the Fort Knox base on January 13, 1937. The train consisted of 9 cars with precious metal melted into ingots, which was accompanied by armed soldiers, secret agents and US Mint guards. The train was greeted by thousands of officially invited persons and dozens of journalists. It all looked like a holiday show. Only starting with the next train, such trains began to be surrounded with secrecy and the dates of their arrival began to be hidden.

American reserve stocks

It was during the Great Depression, thanks to the order to deprivatize gold, that the entire population of America had to hand over their existing gold jewelry at a reduced price, which helped collect the lion's share of the gold reserves. 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 the American currency.

America's coffers contain not only the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the United States itself, but also the gold of countries friendly to America. Some states do not store all their gold in America, while some keep their entire gold reserves there.

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

The existence of a real gold reserve in America's coffers is increasingly being questioned. The situation that occurred with 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 necessary measures to delay negotiations on the release of gold reserves belonging to Germany. Subsequently, within a year, they returned a small part of the gold, but without allowing a single representative of the country into the storage facility.

Racks with gold bars

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

The actions of America and Germany proved that the actual presence of bullion in the vaults is doubtful. The next argument pointing to 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 Germany's gold reserves and, in order to avoid a scandal, purchased another metal for smelting bullion.

No one knows what the real situation is with German gold. In principle, there is no confirmed data on the absence of a gold reserve, nor has it been refuted. In this regard, it is unrealistic to draw conclusions about whether there is gold at all and in what quantities, just as it is unrealistic to understand whether Germany will regain its gold at all.

Gold and foreign exchange reserves of the world's countries

Home > Directory > Lists and ratings > Countries > Gold and foreign exchange reserves of countries of the world

Gold and foreign exchange reserves (international reserves or official reserves) are external highly liquid assets, presented in the form of foreign currency and gold, which are under the control of government monetary authorities and can be used at any time to finance the balance of payments deficit, for interventions in foreign exchange markets influencing the exchange rate of the national currency, or for similar purposes. Below is the ranking of countries based on the results of 2021. Data provided by the World Bank (World Bank Total reserves (includes gold, current US$)).

See also: ranking of countries by GDP

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Gold reserves

And again a scandal

Another scandalous event related to the US gold reserves that occurred earlier was the sale of counterfeit gold bars to China. These ingots were cast from a tungsten alloy and coated with a thin layer of gold, which was revealed when checking a batch of gold sent to evaluate the metal composition and specific gravity.

The Chinese government's assertion that the bullion is counterfeit led to an urgent demand from one of America's congressmen to check the storage facilities. The US authorities did their best to prevent this, which could not but agitate the world community.

As a result of an investigation conducted by China regarding counterfeit ingots, it was revealed that the counterfeits were cast exclusively in America itself, and they were located in Fort Knox. Thanks to the registration data on the bars, it was safe to say that they were delivered from the Federal Reserve Banks during the administration of Bill Clinton.

The number of fakes was in the millions. Not only China suffered from the acquisition of counterfeits, but also the entire international market where the remaining counterfeits were sold. For this, the sale was soon dubbed the “Clinton Gold Scam,” because the replacement of America’s real gold and foreign exchange reserves with a batch of counterfeits was a fraudulent move for the international precious metals market. There is an opinion that the batch of fakes, as before, is located in US storage facilities.

Fake gold

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 the conversation that the Federal Reserve System does not own gold in general - only gold and foreign exchange certificates accepted from the American Treasury are reflected on the institution's deposit.

What the relationship between the two government organizations is remains unclear. Today, without a 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 relationships of the players themselves. With the loss of this trusting relationship, the dollar will collapse. America's fake gold reserves will not save the current situation.

Any demands from Germany or any other state for the return of gold reserves will mean large expenses for America to purchase 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.

Why are gold and foreign exchange reserves needed and why do countries accumulate them?

The main generally accepted role of gold and foreign exchange reserves is considered to be ensuring the stability of the national currency exchange rate, as well as the stability of the entire financial situation of the state. Gold and foreign currency reserves are an indicator and guarantee that the country will fulfill its obligations.

Gold and foreign exchange reserves are much more important for countries with economies isolated from the outside world. Since such countries rely less on credits and borrowings from other countries and the International Monetary Fund.

It cannot be completely stated that a large volume of gold and foreign currency reserves will always ensure a stable exchange rate of the country’s national currency. Much depends on the general state of the economy of each specific country, its development and orientation. However, the state of gold and foreign currency reserves always indirectly affects the main macroeconomic indicators, including the exchange rate, the size of the country's balance of payments and the level of inflation.

The state can use its gold and foreign exchange reserves to cover the balance of payments deficit, maintain the exchange rate of the national currency, pay external debts and transactions with other countries, for internal social payments to the population and other budget needs.

In simple words, gold and foreign currency reserves are a safety net for unforeseen and emerging negative economic circumstances (for a rainy day).

Gold reserves of favorite countries

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

America's current reserves were laid down during the Great Depression. But mining of this metal began during the gold rush. In 1933, the United States issued a decree on the basis of which the state bought up all personal items made of gold at a reduced cost.

The United States stores not only the personal reserves of citizens, but also bullion from other countries. This began at the beginning of World War II. Some states, fearing a Nazi invasion, took all the gold to America for storage.

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

US gold reserves

China's gold reserves

Gold reserves of Russia

Swiss gold reserves

India's gold reserves

Two anti-favorites in gold reserves

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

Regarding Mexico, it is difficult to say anything precise - everything is too confusing. But as for Ukraine, everything is clear and understandable. Since 1999, and to this day, Ukraine’s gold reserves have been decreasing at a catastrophic rate, which is undoubtedly facilitated by events in eastern Ukraine and conflicts in the government.

In 2014, there was a massive export of gold, which threatened Ukraine with economic collapse. During the division of Ukrainian assets between the government and local oligarchs, a huge scandal almost broke out. The situation was softened only by a cash tranche from America.

So will there be an audit?

No one knows exactly how much gold is stored in the United States. An audit is required to clarify this issue. A random inspection was carried out in 2012, the results of this inspection amazed everyone with their brevity.

The report said that the test was successful, the gold was counted and its value was equal to a certain number of millions, and the total amount was several hundred tons. That's all the information. So nothing concrete is known.

But the now-elected new President Trump has promised to look into this issue. He is sure that there really is 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 stored exclusively in Russia.