Where is the Gold? Are Fort Knox and NY Fed Suspicions Unfounded?

There has been ongoing speculation about America’s holdings of foreign gold reserves. Elon Musk’s request to audit Fort Knox pushed the issue into the headlines once more. Now, the new incoming German government is discussing pulling their gold reserves from the New York Fed due to a lack of transparency and the public is asking—where is the gold?

I personally toured the New York Fed many years ago, and while there is gold there, I cannot verify the quantity or quality; no one has ever accomplished such a feat. The last full audit of US gold reserves occurred in 1953 under President Eisenhower.

Auditors from the US Treasury and Mint verified domestic and limited foreign-held gold at the New York Fed and Fort Knox. Third-party auditors were not permitted, but there were US Congressional observers. Treasury Secretary George M. Humphrey and Mint Director William H. Brett were in charge of overseeing this audit.

Now, the government declared the audit to be a “full” inspection. However, only 3 of the 22 compartments at Fort Knox were examined, accounting for only 13.6% of gold holdings. Around 88,000 bars (34.4M oz) were meticulously counted, and auditors weighed around 9,000 bars (130 tons). Only 26 gold bars, selected at random, were drilled to confirm purity.

Auditors confirmed that US gold certificates matched physical holdings at the New York Fed, but due to limited sampling and a lack of transparency, suspicions rose. “We have no reason to believe other melts would differ [from assay results],” the joint commission stated.

The gold examined was mainly domestic. Germany’s holdings, for example, were not part of the audit. Public confidence in the US government was on the decline at this period amid Cold War secrecy. Around the same time of the audit, the CIA admitted it to Operation Ajax—a covert operation to overthrow Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and install Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

This was the first time that the US government openly admitted to orchestrating a coup and installing a leader in a foreign nation. How could the public and/or foreign nations trust the US under these conditions?

The GAO/Treasury conducted the next audit in 1974, reviewing 21% of gold holdings at Fort Knox. This occurred in the post-Bretton Woods period after Nixon abandoned the gold standard. Again, third-party auditors were not permitted to attend, and this time, auditors did not weigh bars. Some called the September 1974 examination a “show audit” and a publicity stunt as only 1 of the 13 vaults was examined. The “real” audit occurred the following month by a joint GAO-Treasury committee, but as mentioned, only 91,404 bars of 367,500 were examined. Random samples were tested for purity, but there was no assaying or weighing.

Continuing audits were ongoing, and the US government pledged to inspect 10% of its gold holdings annually from 1975 to 1983. As of 1985, the government stated it had audited 89% of its gold holdings, but only through seal verifications and limited sampling. Again, only the US government had access to these vaults.

The matter was ultimately laid to rest until 2012, when US politicians like Ron Paul and foreign governments demanded another audit. Germany was threatening to relocate their US holdings at the time due to a lack of transparency, and had been increasingly calling for an audit in the decades leading up to 2012. To appease doubters, the Treasury OIG conducted another limited audit.

The 2012-2013 NY Fed Audit scope included 34,201 US-owned gold bars (418 tons). Less than 1% (367 bars) were tested for purity. Auditors did not weigh the gold, nor did they conduct a full inventory. All compartments were to remain sealed unless they had reason to suspect tampering. Again, no independent assayers were admitted. Worse, foreign holdings were not inspected. Germany’s gold, for example, was not reviewed but they maintained trust in the US government despite some backlash.

Fast-forward to 2025: DOGE is uncovering government waste and mismanagement and has set its sights on Fort Knox. The US Treasury declared any audit a breach of national security. A true audit of Fort Knox, not including the NY Fed, would take 18-24 months and require 44,000 hours. Foreign governments now have a seemingly plausible reason to point their finger at the US and call “FOUL PLAY!”

Here’s the thing–no nation completely audits its gold holdings. The UAE, for example, implemented mandatory annual audits but only examined 10-20% of its holdings. There is limited transparency as their audits are classified, but they do permit third-party audits and follow London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) standards. Switzerland also follows LBMA standards and conducts regular audits, but auditors only check seals as there is no physical count.

Switzerland is far more transparent about its auditing process, but again, they are only looking at a small percentage of overall holdings and not weighing or physically assessing the gold. Any nation could point the finger at another and question the validity of its stockpile.

As for US gold holdings, there have not been any official sales. If anything is missing, then that means it was stolen. However, the media is honing in on the US without understanding that no foreign nation conducts a full audit of their gold holdings. It all comes down to trust in the government, not only the current administration but every administration that has come to pass.

Thank you President Nixon
—————-
Thanks also to President Ford who made Gold ownership in America legal, again.

On that note, Nixon had to close the dollar redeemable for Gold ( considered taking us off the Gold standard) because countries were trading in their USD’s for physical Gold, most notably France draining our Gold reserves.

We had at one time 20,000 tons of Gold ( some say more, some less), far more than the 8,130 tons today. Nixon decided to stop the drain. As the world’s Central Banks are now buying Gold in historic tonnages, Gold is more important than ever.

GATA.org, a well known non profit organization claims China has accumulated close to 28,000 tons. As it is a national security issue, they don’t disclose what they really have, presumably because they will back their Yuan with 40 percent
Gold in the future.That will definitely change the world financial system.

During my stint in Colombia, I saw many Chinese in the mining areas. When I asked my soldiers, they said they buy the Dore, ( raw Gold ore) and ship it back to China for refining, by passing entirely the reporting system.

“GATA.org, a well known non profit organization claims China has accumulated close to 28,000 tons.”

WRONG!

This is unlikely to happen overnight, Duowei warned, noting that China’s financial infrastructure is insufficiently developed and the likelihood that China has nowhere near the 30,000 tons of gold suggested.

https://gata.org/node/15347

"During my stint in Colombia, "

During my stint in the federal pen I had plenty of time to develope my next scam.

Do you think the Chinese will make their notes redeemable for physical gold?
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No, their latest White paper mentions Gold “ backing”. Presumably what Brics has stated, 40 percent Gold.

Countries will never again make currencies fully redeemable for Gold. Two reasons, redeeming paper currency for Gold wipes out governments reserves, typically done when the paper holders lose trust in their government….think revolt.

If a nation has full convertibility ( like we had), the public technically has control of the finances and can wipe out (financially ) a corrupted, bad government by draining the reserves.

All that said, fully expect Brics, China, and others unfriendly to instate an alternate to the USD,in tge works, backed not by “a promise to pay” but tangible wealth- Gold.

I worked in the nuclear industry for 20+ years. Part of that is buying and selling within the supply chain — ore, chemical treatment/refining, enrichment, storage, making actual fuel elements that go into the nuclear reactors, yada yada.
A company deep into all that was Nuexco. Partly owned by some TWOT who owned a large chunk of the football team nicknamed the Orange Crush.
Anyhoo, Nuexco operated a storage facility. Basically a big warehouse with barrel after barrel of nuclear fuel in its various physical forms. A utility could buy some stuff from SAfrica, who would ship it to the warehouse, where it would sit until a company in the next step of the process would take possession and get on with it.
Well, they were running a scam. Your utility would go in to do an audit and all the barrels would have your stickers, which would tie to the paperwork. Hunky dorey.
Uhh, until the CCP agents showed up and discovered that the stickers had been swapped out time after time. A single physical barrel was “listed” during multiple audits as owned by half a dozen utilities.
A very significant portion of those barrels were owned by the Russian gov’mt. Hundreds of millions of $$$. The football owner disappeared.
My company lost ~$2M.

This sort of thing is all too common when 3rd parties hold your asset. Think gold.

Got it.

There is also the ‘soft backing” that RR subscribed to, where the money supply is adjusted to keep gold prices stable.

I actually like that approach better than the 40% reserve backing.. only because 40% seems weak.. IOW, I would think the markets would immediately bake that 250% inflation into the cake. People aren’t stupid - if the currency is only 40% backed, then it’s only worth 40% of its nominal value.

it would confuse the hoopleheads but the well-read would be better-informed if the author had made clear whether these were Troy ounce/tons or avoirdupois.

Gold is customarily weighed in Troy units and a Troy ounce is heavier than an ounce avoirdupois, 31.1 grams vs 28.35 grams, but there are only 12 Troy ounces in a Troy pound.

So a pound Troy weighs 373.2 grams but a pound avdp weighs 453.6 grams, a difference of almost 18%. A ton Troy is still 2000 pounds Troy so a ton of gold weighs 17.7% less than a ton of artichokes.

And the absence of mention of which system of measurement was used gives me to believe that Martin Armstrong doesn’t know gold is measured under a different system and he’s merely regurgitating what was in the report.

“No, their latest White paper mentions Gold “ backing”. Presumably what Brics has stated, 40 percent Gold.”

I would ask for a source but I know that often you just make things up.

“Just read from two knowledgeable on the “ Chinese Gold hoard” is 32,000 tons, exceeding the US hoard x four…”

ROTFLMAO!

You previously gave a source for this and it turned out to be a lie.

“we shall see.”

Still waiting to see that major wwrld financial collapse you said would happen ib 2015.

And that US civil 8vil war you said would begin January 2025.

“All that said, fully expect Brics, China, and others unfriendly to instate an alternate to the USD,in tge works, backed not by “a promise to pay” but tangible wealth- Gold.”

The “C” in BRICS is China.

BRICS currency so far is nothing but an idea on paper.

Gold’s movement has predicted financial crises for decades, especially sovereign debt crises. Real estate, equities, bonds, all paper down or stagnant but yet Gold keeps surging higher, unchecked.

When I see the price of Gold rising in every countries currencies across the globe, I see extreme financial mayhem ahead. The amount of paper currencies to buy Gold today is historic.

Bad, very, very bad for most, good, very, very good for those that saw the global meltdown coming. That said, it is still not to late to rush to the safety of Gold.

"Bad, very, very bad for most, good, very, very good for those that saw the global meltdown coming"

in 2014, I predicted that the gobal meltdown would happen in 2015! One of these days I hope tomeventually get a prediction right.

A controversial ‘superforecaster’ has predicted that World War III is about to begin, while will lead to the collapse of the US by 2032.

Martin Armstrong has made the stark claims using AI-powered computer named ‘Socrates’ that he programed to monitors the world news feeds and looks for fundamental news events that correlate behind the global trends.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13972323/Superforecaster-says-World-War-III-begin-collapse.html

And in the 90’s, Socrates lost over $700 billion in hedge fund trades.

The result: Armstrong convicted of securities fraud and spent eleven years in prison.

Published: 11:36 EDT, 19 October 2024

Armstrong created the AI program out of a desire to write software that could automate hedge fund trading back in the 1970s and ‘80s.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13972323/Superforecaster-says-World-War-III-begin-collapse.html

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