Today many countries are happy to run long-term balance of payments deficits, which they could not have done in the days of the gold standard. There is more gold discovered in sea water than there is on land. The concentration is 0.000004 parts per million. The greatest gold reserves are held by the United States at Fort Knox, Kentucky. The gold bars are stored in bomb-proof vaults, surrounded by armed guards.
Gold coins are the oldest and most precious of the coins collected by numismatists.