Posted on 01/22/2026 6:36:45 AM PST by delta7
The state of Wyoming quietly bought $10 million in gold in December as required by a new state law. Sponsors of the law hail it as a hedge against dollar devaluation while critics say there’s no good way to cash in on gold’s increasing value.
Wyoming’s historic $10 million gold purchase required by 2025 legislation has happened with little fanfare. There were no public announcements or press releases at the time. There was just a brief mention of the December purchase during a Jan. 9 Joint Appropriations Committee hearing. Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, asked the Wyoming Treasurer’s office for an update on whether the purchase had been made during the hearings.
Deputy Director Dawn Williams confirmed the Treasurer’s office had indeed purchased the gold on Dec. 19. In all, Williams said the purchase totaled 2,312 ounces of gold, at $4,337.60 per ounce. That gold is now physically housed at the Wyoming Reserve, Williams added, which is a high-security vault in Casper focused on secure storage of precious metals. The CEO of the Wyoming Reserve is Josh Phair, who is also CEO of Scottsdale Mint, which fabricates gold and silver coins, bars and bullion for central banks and Fortune 500 companies, as well as other countries and customers. Wyoming’s newly purchased gold is worth $400,000 more now than when it was acquired a month ago, and State Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, isn’t being quiet about that, at all. To him, that meteoric rise in value is exactly the point behind the Wyoming Gold Act, which he sponsored during last year’s legislative session. “We have to think outside the box,” Ide told Cowboy State Daily. “We have to take measures to protect what we’ve stored. These dollar-denominated investments are priced in dollars, and the dollar’s getting diluted and debased rapidly. I mean we have $2 trillion federal deficits as far as the eye can see.” Gold, Silver Payments For Taxes And Fees With Congress raising the debt ceiling another $5 trillion in July as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill, Ide believes the “chickens are coming home to roost.”
The only way to protect the state’s wealth, Ide believes, is to hold at least some physical gold in reserve. ....
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Are they storing it in the Teapot Dome?
“critics say there’s no good way to cash in on gold’s increasing value”
They should have done this when gold was $400, not $4000
You could let the taxpayers buy the gold...
I suppose, though, that there wouldn’t be anything to steal.
The value of gold today is the same as it was in December. In fact, it is relatively the same as it was 2 years ago, 200 years ago, 2000 years ago.
What's changed is the price of gold, in fiat debt-based green-inked TP.
What Wyoming has done, instead of being invested in fiat, they have ***divested*** out of fiat, into real money.
$10 million could buy approximately 2,070 troy ounces of gold at the current spot market price of around $4,800. That’s about 130 lbs.
My old-timer dad used to say that an ounce of gold could buy a nice men’s suit or a nice handgun. Now an ounce of gold could buy a nice men’s suit, and several nice handguns.
Another observation on price versus value, homes are CHEAPER today:
The dollar didn’t just weaken — it quietly robbed you. Down 28% in five years.
My parents bought their house in 1962 for $16,000.
Back then, gold was $35 an ounce. That house cost 457 ounces of gold.
Today, the house is “worth” $750,000. Gold is about $3,300 an ounce.
That same house is 227 ounces of gold — half the real value.
Everyone thinks they got rich. They didn’t. The measuring stick got warped.
That’s the scam of inflation. Prices go up, politicians get away with it.
People confuse bigger numbers with more wealth.
A million dollars today feels impressive — until you realize it’s the purchasing power of about eighty grand in 1970.
You’re not richer.
The currency is weaker.
You have a keen grasp of things.
L
Brainiacs at work buying at the top of the market....
But the loss of value hasn't hurt everyone.
On the other side of the coin - thousands of politicians have become multi-millionaires whild destroying the value of the dollar.....
who says it’s the top?
in fiat debt-based green-inked TP.
As Jeremy Irons so eloquently noted in Margin Call, just pieces of paper with peoples pictures on it.
Shame on you. You know that a troy ounce is not the same as an avoirdupois (sp?).
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
One of your teachers is weeping right now.
What Wyoming has done, instead of being invested in fiat, they have ***divested*** out of fiat, into real money
OK, now crunch $10 million @ $400 an ounce in say, 1990. Compare with cash or 30 year T-bills that paid 0.2%. See where I’m goin’ with that? You make money on the buy.
22 years ago ...
The currency is weaker.
I snicker when everyone complains about Inflation. When pricing everything in PM’s, the cost of living has never, ever been cheaper!
Ha! Reminds me of a buddy from high school. He was selling weed, and dutifully used a scale.
But while his dealer fronted an avoirdupois pound, he sold the ounces and such in troy. Oops! I still laugh about it, but I bet he doesn’t. Drug dealing is how Americans became familiar with the metric system of weights and measures, I guess.
When gold was under $600 I paid 2.4 ounces gold and 7 oz silver for a new in box match grade M1A and 2 stainless steel Browning Hi Powers 🤠
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