The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky is not a production facility – it stores precious metal bullion reserves for the United States.
No visitors are permitted in the facility.
Fort Knox Facts
Amount of present gold holdings: 147.3 million ounces.About half of the Treasury’s stored gold (as well as valuables of other federal agencies) is kept at Fort Knox.
Highest historic gold holdings: 649.6 million ounces (December 31, 1941).
The only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity of gold during regularly scheduled audits. Except for these samples, no gold has been transferred to or from the Depository for many years.
The gold is held as an asset of the United States at book value of $42.22 per ounce.
Size of a standard gold bar: 7 inches x 3 and 5/8 inches x 1 and 3/4 inches.
Weight of a standard gold bar: approximately 400 ounces or 27.5 pounds.
The actual structure and content of the facility is known by only a few, and no one person knows all the procedures to open the vault.
The first gold arrived at Fort Knox in 1937…by U.S. Mail! View photos of the shipment on the History of the U.S. Mint page.
History of the Fort Knox Bullion Depository
The timeline below includes this facility’s important moments. Learn more about where the Fort Knox Bullion Depository fits in the Mint’s story, atHistory of the U.S. Mint.
1935 - Present
August - Congress authorizes the transfer of land in Fort Knox, Kentucky from the military to the Treasury. The Act designates the land for use as a depository to store the country's precious metal bullion reserves.
December - Construction of the bullion depository is complete.
The building needs 16,000 cubic feet of granite; 4,200 cubic yards of concrete; 750 tons of reinforcing steel; and 670 tons of structural steel. The cost of construction is $560,000.
January 13 - Fort Knox receives its first shipment of gold from the Philadelphia Mint and New York Assay Office.
Fort Knox stores the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights during World War II to protect them from danger. In 1944 the documents are returned to Washington, DC.
Fort Knox has stored valuable items for other government agencies, including the Magna Carta, and the crown, sword, scepter, orb, and cape of St. Stephen, King of Hungary before being returned to Hungary in 1978.
September 23 - Fort Knox breaks from its strict no-visitors policy to allow a group of journalists and a Congressional delegation into the vaults to view the gold reserves. The Treasury Secretary allows the visit when rumors persist that all the gold had been removed from the vaults.
Previously, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only person other than authorized personnel to access the vaults.
August 24 - Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, and Congressional representatives visit the vaults. The vaults open to non-authorized personnel for the first time since 1974.
The extensive security is not simply for decoration. Fort Knox still serves its original purpose, holding roughly 147.3 million ounces of gold, which is just over half of the U.S. Treasury's stored bullion.
As of 31 July 2020, Fort Knox holds 147.34 million troy ounces (4,583 metric tons) of gold reserves with a market value of US $290.9 billion, representing 56.35% of the gold reserves of the United States.
Those questions abound for one particular reason: The U.S. government refuses to talk about gold. We know that the last somewhat credible examination of Fort Knox's gold was in 1953.
John Paulson is an American hedge fund manager and billionaire famous for having one of the world's biggest privately owned gold reserves. He's also well known for predicting the 2007 mortgage financial crisis and has made headlines for his mammoth-sized gold holdings through his firm, Paulson & Co.
The country with the most gold is the United States, holding 8,133 tonnes valued at $628 billion. Half of the country's reserves are stored at the United States Bullion Depository, commonly known as Fort Knox, a United States Army installation in Kentucky.
Weight of a standard gold bar: approximately 400 ounces or 27.5 pounds. The actual structure and content of the facility is known by only a few, and no one person knows all the procedures to open the vault. The first gold arrived at Fort Knox in 1937…by U.S. Mail!
Gold price can vary based on the current market price, purity, and wider international factors. As of 2023, a ton of pure 24-karat gold is worth approximately $55 million in U.S. dollars.
Central banks typically hold the standard 400-troy-ounce (438.9-ounce; 27.4-pound; 12.4-kilogram) Good Delivery gold bar in their gold reserves and it is widely traded among bullion dealers.
The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building adjacent to the Fort Knox Army Post. It is operated by the United States Department of the Treasury, and stores over half the country's gold reserves.
In fact, no one has managed to break in because no one has even attempted it! Fort Knox boasts an impressive display of security, and has even more they don't openly display. Visitors are not allowed and even if you manage to get inside, the vaults can all be filled with water.
Originally, the depository exclusively stored silver bullion bars, which is how it got nicknamed the “Fort Knox of silver.” Eventually, the West Point Bullion Depository expanded to house more than silver bullion bars.
Today, there are no specific limits on how much gold a person can own in the U.S. Whether it's bullion, coins, or jewelry, you can buy, own, and possess as much gold as you like.
As the Army's Human Resource Center of Excellence, Fort Knox is now positioned to continue its central role in the front ranks of military installations in the United States, recruiting, training and supporting warfighters for the challenges of the twenty-first century.
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The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky is not a production facility – it stores precious metal bullion reserves for the United States.
