page_title: United States Bullion Depository
section_title: Current holdings
hierarchical_section_title: United States Bullion Depository / Current holdings
caption_attribution_description: English: 1933 G$20 Saint GaudensGold (fineness 0.9000), 34mm, 33.436g, designed by Augustus Saint-GaudensJN2015-5989-90
context_page_description: The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located next to the United States Army post of Fort Knox, Kentucky. It is operated by the United States Department of the Treasury. The vault is used to store a large portion of the United States' gold reserves as well as other precious items belonging to or in custody of the federal government. It currently holds roughly 147 million troy ounces of gold bullion, over half of the Treasury's stored gold. The United States Mint Police protects the depository.
  The Treasury built the depository in 1936 on land transferred to it from the military. Its purpose was to house gold then stored in New York City and Philadelphia, in keeping with a strategy to move gold reserves away from coastal cities to areas less vulnerable to foreign military attack. The first set of gold shipments to the depository occurred during the first half of 1937. A second set was completed in 1941. These shipments, overseen by the United States Post Office Department, totaled roughly 417 million troy ounces, almost two-thirds of the total gold reserves of the United States.
context_section_description: As of 31 March 2020, Fort Knox holds 147.34 million troy ounces (4,583 metric tons) of gold reserves with a market value of US $236.4 billion, representing 56.35% of the gold reserves of the United States.  As of 2017, the U.S. gold reserves total 8,133.5 metric tons. The next highest holdings were Germany's, whose gold reserves were 3,371.0 metric tons.
  The gold bars held in the depository are approximately seven inches long, three and a half inches wide, and one and three-quarters inches thick. While each of these bars contains the equivalent of about 400 troy ounces (12.4 kilograms) of pure gold, they differ in their composition. Mint gold bars are a minimum of 99.5% fine gold, while coin bars, which were made from melted gold coins, are the same composition as the coins from which they were made.
  The 1934 London Good Delivery List, published by the London Gold Market (a precursor of the London Bullion Market Association), defined coin bars as "bars assaying 899 to 901 per mille or 915 ​¹⁄₂ to 917 per mille and containing between 350 and 420 ounces of fine gold".  These two different levels of fineness reflected the composition of gold coins of the day.  U.S. coins produced from 1838 through 1933 were made with 90% gold alloyed with 10% copper, while U.K. crown gold coins were minted with a gold proportion of 22 parts to 24 (​91 ²⁄₃%). These lower gold ratios contrast to many 99.9% fine gold bullion coins minted in modern times since older coins were intended for circulation while newer coins are not.
  In 2011, the U.S. Treasury's full detailed schedules of gold bars were published by the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services as part of submissions for its hearing titled "Investigating the Gold: H.R. 1495, the Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 and the Oversight of United States Gold Holdings".  From the schedule, it can be seen that roughly 64% of the gold bars at Fort Knox have a fineness between 899 and 901, 2% have a fineness between 901.1 and 915.4, 17% have a fineness between 915.5 and 917, and 17% have a fineness greater than or equal to 995.  The average fineness is 916.7.
  In addition to the gold, the depository currently holds ten 1933 Double Eagle gold coins, a 1974-D aluminum penny, and twenty gold (22-karat) Sacagawea dollar coins that flew on the Space Shuttle.
caption: 1933 double eagle.
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