Skip to content


Juicy Details on the US Gold Reserves

leadimage

10/13/09 Stockholm, Sweden – With the spot price of gold hovering around another all-time record high today, at $1,068 an ounce, one starts to wonder if the US gold reserves could in fact help provide for the nation as its financial reckoning day gets underway.

It’s doubtful but, without knowing exactly where gold is headed, it’s impossible to know. Either way, a good place to start is by examining exactly how much gold the US currently has on hand. It’s well known that US has the biggest gold reserves of any individual country, but beyond the main figures it’s not necessarily easy to track down a more detailed assessment.

Tackling the task head on, Jesse’s Café Américain examines the issue and finds several key points:

“The US currently holds 261,499,000 fine troy ounces in its reserves. US International Reserve Position, US Treasury

“The gold is valued on the books at $42.2222 per fine troy ounce.

“This represents a total value of $11,041,063,078.

“This value appears on the Treasury’s International Reserve Position US Treasury on Line 4.

“Since there are 32150.7466 troy ounces in a tonne, the US Treasury is holding 8,133.528072 tonnes of fine gold.”

The complete information provided by Jesse’s Café Américain is an insightful start for considering the present value of the reserves, and it also includes details on the Federal Reserve Gold Certificates.

Author Image for Rocky Vega

Rocky Vega

Rocky Vega is a regular contributor to The Daily Reckoning. Previously, he was founding publisher of UrbanTurf and RFID Update, which he operated from Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico, and associate publisher of FierceFinance. He specialized in direct marketing at MBI, facilitated MIT Sloan School of Management programs, and has been featured on CBS. Vega graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he was on the board of Let’s Go Publications and directed business programs involving McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and Harvard Business School faculty. He is also enrolled at the Stockholm School of Economics.

Special Report: From Hulbert’s No 1-Ranked Advisory Letter Over 5 Years, GOLD $2000 REPORT : Five entirely new ways to play the gold trend and a hidden way to snap up gold- for less than one penny per ounce!

 

The articles and commentary featured on the Daily Reckoning are presented by Agora Financial.

Sign Up for The Daily Reckoning e-letter and receive a copy of Bill Bonner's The Trade of The Decade report… at NO CHARGE.

  

We Will Not Share Your Email.
We Value Your Privacy.

Related Articles:


7 Responses

  1. Daniel Newhouse said

    If I’m not mistaken, the preponderance of U.S. gold reserves are held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And I don’t think those are reported in the official US gold reserves. Theoretically, the Federal Reserve is a private institution.

    on October 13, 2009.
  2. tony bonn said

    it is doubtful that the usa has as much gold as it claims….uk treasury is out of gold…

    dan – u.s. gold reserves are held by the treasury in bullion repositories such as ft knox.

    the fed does not hold gold except on a custodial basis for foreign governments….

    however the fed reports the gold on its balance sheet via gold certificates which the treasury issues…however, the treasury also claims the gold on its balance sheet so i am not clear how the two institutions own the same gold at the same time….

    the fed is private – it’s not theoretical…

    on October 13, 2009.
  3. LWJ said

    So, with a little math, the sum total dollar value of the world’s reserves at $1,000 oz is only 1.3 Trillion dollars? Doesn,t seem to be much of a backstop to the world’s currencies.

    on October 14, 2009.
  4. Dennis Smith said

    Bottom line, no one (beside the rapacious bankers who comprise the Fed)knows for sure how much gold we hold (and those moneysuckers who comprise the Fed continue to lie to us). The Fed must go. Now.

    on October 14, 2009.
  5. J. Foster said

    If the figures given are accurate and I doubt it, then what is the chance of the Fed doing another Bretton Woods and fixing the world price at, say, $10K per oz. and thus eliminating their debt? Frankly, I do not trust ANY gov statistics. Is there really any gold in Ft. Knox that is owned by the US?

    on October 14, 2009.
  6. Ken Hat said

    So what it all boils down to? Is the USA is owned by a private bank? The taxes go to a private bank, then the private bank give it back at interest! Great for them!
    That makes them more powerful then the President or Congress? Be nice to have a job at Federal Reserve.
    Question? If USA? has 261,499,000 Troy Ounces at $1,000 ounces = $261,499,000,000.oo? correct me on that?
    Is that not 261 trillion? SO if Gold goes to $2,ooo ounce! Now! 500+ trillion dollars can be covered?
    Is not a Troy Ounce = 30grams? USA ounce = 28.54 grams? Well, should say the Federal Reserves has the Gold and that is private! SO USA has nothing? The Federal Reserve owns the USA – it appears?

    on October 18, 2009.
  7. Leo said

    are you stupid Ken Hat 261,499,000 X $1000

    IS NOT 261 TRILLION, see this is why america is retarded, u are probably a middle aged person and cant do math,

    261,499,000 X $1000= $261,499,000,000

    Or in short 261.499 BILIION

    AMERICA, HOME OF THE RETARDS

    on November 18, 2009.

Some HTML is OK

(never shared)

or, reply to this post via trackback. Our Comment Policy.