( Kitco News) - Although he made this assumption nearly one year ago, the Donald's comments on gold at Fort Knox - or lack thereof - are making the rounds on Twitter again Tuesday. But by 1986, you had 97 percent was audited. Koos takes a sharp jab at how the government bureaucracy operates, inveighing (with cause) that it should be clear that the Deep Storage gold has not been audited by professionals, but the precious metals have been verified by imbeciles.. Mnuchin said it was the first time Fort Knox opened its vaults to outsiders since a Congressional delegation and some journalists were let in to view the gold for the first time in 1974. 147.4 million fine troy ounces, valued at $6.2 billion, is stored in 13 vault compartments at Fort Knox Bullion Depository. The results of the assays by Ledoux & Company and White Sands Missile Range presented by the OIG at the congressional hearing show nearly all 9999 fine gold (see exhibit 3, or read page 62 to 124 from this document). *In 1974 the New York assay office tested 95 bars. " He told an audience in Louisville, "I assume the gold is still there.". Maybe a room or two full of gold but the rest is gone. Reversal of this policy on a one time only basis came as a result of a series of peculiar events that resulted in a congressional demand for an audit of the bullion depository, and a first-hand viewing of the gold deposited there. And the vault has also been a setting place for several movies, the most famous being the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger when the titular character foiled a plot to contaminate thebullion. Metal Coins, back to But, the OIG disclosed assay reports of the audits of 3 % of the US official gold reserves stored by the Mint at the congressional hearing in 2011 (exhibit 3 and 4). Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group. It was a magnificent golden sunrise that inspired visions of glory, wealth, and beauty. Between 10 and 1974 about 1986% of the gold was weighed in, a big drop from 2. At the congressional hearing of the Gold Transparency Act (H.R. This was the first time the OIG was responsible for the audits of the gold at the Mint (note, this same OIG is still responsible for the audits). The Fort Knox Mine was initially certified in full compliance with the Cyanide Code in February 2008 and was recertified in September 2011, in February 2015, and in August 2018. Fort Knox sits on over 100,000 acres and houses 30,000 military personnel. . Located in Kentucky, Fort Knox is a United States Army base whichhouses most of the US's gold reserves. Donate here, Idaho House Votes to Authorize State Gold & Silver Holdings, 34 Wyoming House Members Thumb Their Noses at Sound Money, Catch-22: Rate Hikes May Fuel Even MORE Inflationary Deficit Spending, Vermont Seeks to Become 44th State to Roll Back Sales Tax on Sound Money, Mississippi Legislature Votes Overwhelmingly to End Sales Taxes on Gold and Silver, VIDEO: President of Money Metals Exchange Joins Gold Standard Podcast to Discuss Sound Money Legislation, Iowa Seeks to End Capital Gains Taxes on Gold and Silver, Mississippi Bill Would End All Taxes on, Invest State Funds in, Gold & Silver, Kentucky Lawmakers Aim to End Sales Taxes on Sound Money, Missouri Senate Votes to End Income Taxes on Gold and Silver, Hold Monetary Metals in Reserve, Legislators Seek Repeal of Wisconsins Controversial Sales Tax on Gold and Silver. The vaults were last opened to the public in the 1970s, and the last treasury secretary visit was in 1948. At this stage I havent been able to get my hands on any assay report from 1974 1986. 12/ As of September 30, 1984, 99.9 percent of the gold stored at the United States Denver Mint had been audited under the initial continuing audit program. In response to a FOIA request the US Mint has finally released reports drafted from 1993 through 2008 related to the physical audits of the US official gold reserves. I doubt an attempt to submitting a FOIA request directly to the Treasury Department will bring me anything; likely it will be a waste of time as I had already contacted all possible government departments separately, which could not deliver me the reports I was looking for despite none of them was unwilling to help me. Although this rumor or theory is simply that, the remarkably high security that guards the U.S. gold reserves has understandably drawn the curiosity of the investigative press. In 1977 the New York assay office, which is a subsidiary of the US Mint, conducted the assays. "good delivery" bricks of gold found gutted and filled with tungsten within the confines of LBMA approved vaults in Hong Kong. I have copied as much quotes in this post as I can to minimize the possibility of an erroneous interpretation of the official text in the audit reports. I can say that without any hesitation, because I have observed the gold and the security of the gold reserves myself. Royal Mint Launches First Coin in Myths and Legends Collection, Numismatic Crime Counterfeit Notes Sold Over Facebook, 1776 Continental Dollar Offered by David Lawrence Rare Coins, Grade This 1936-S Cincinnati Commemorative Silver Half Dollar, First King Charles III Coin From Pobjoy Celebrating the Accession, Dakota 1875 $5 Bank Note in Stacks Bowers Spring Auction. As a result more than 1,700 tonnes at the Fort Knox and the Denver depository, that were both fully audited and sealed at that time, needed to be re-audited. My FOIA request had disappeared, or did it? Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) said he plans to introduce legislation next year to force an audit of U.S. holdings of gold. Your request was received in this office on March 3, 2015 and assigned FOIA case number RD 45578. Next, we can see Thorsons list he presented of physical gold audit reports of the continuingaudit program from 1974 to 1986. The Eisenhower Administration Conducted The Last Audit Of Fort Knox. The First Critical Observations. The monetary gold stock of the United States totals 276.0 million fine troy ounces valued at $11.7 billion at the official rate of $42.2222 per fine troy ounce, and is stored in various federal depositories (table attached), the largest of which is at Fort Knox, Kentucky. He tweeted " Glad gold is safe! The usage of cookies and the collection of customer information by BullionStar is guided by our. Over 640,000,000 ounces of real money sat behind those massive locked doors. President Reagan last spring demanding that this be looked into immediately. On top of this, a decades worth (1993-2003) of Joint Seal inspections from the Denver and West Point depositories are not accounted for. Quoting from the 1981 report: Gold at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is audited periodically by examiners of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Members of the Committee for Continuing Audits of United States Government-owned Gold representing the Mint and BGFO observed the audits at the invitation of the Board and the Federal Reserve Bank. The compartments at the Mint were placed under official joint seal, whereas the FRBNY compartments were never placed under official joint seal (as we can read on page 11 of the 1980 audit report). As a result, the gold at the Bank [FRBNY] is considered unaudited. Its glittering gold . The Mint estimated that as much as one-third of the gold reserves were examined during this period. Dollars, Native . Moreover, it showed a number of (at best) inconsistencies in how the mint conducts its bullion inspection for auditing purposes. The intention in 1975 was to audit the gold at the FRBNY, but then, a few years down the road the gold at the New York Fed was mysteriouslyexempt from the continuing audits program. Buy for Vault Storage in New Zealand It lies 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Louisville and occupies an area of 172 square miles (445 square km). The last trial was a "hybrid" SAG, with one cyclopac underflow feeding the . The official story from OIG is that 100 % of the gold stored at Fort Knox was audited in between 1974 and 1986, . The Congressional inspection adheres to the new open door policy of the government announced by President Ford. The Eisenhower Administration Conducted The Last Audit Of Fort Knox In 1953, the US Treasury Department audited Fort Knox, but only around 5% of the gold underwent testing for purity. And the last time it was counted was actually in 1953." Exhibit 7.1. The last time anyone had access to inspect the deposits was on September 23, 1974. . More anomalies with regard to the audits of the US official gold reserves will be discussed in forthcoming posts. His visit was the one and only time a gold vault was opened for inspection for anyone other than authorized personnel. Military/Civilian clock Examples of Civilian/Military time conversion. In one case, the auditors were allegedly unaware that the scale was showing standard ounces rather than troy ounces, which all precious metals are weighed in, throwing an entire days worth of measurements out of whack (that a scale used for precious metals would ever be set to anything besides troy ounces is questionable). Thats everything we have, or are aware of. 'So many dead. Fort Knox Policies. 'It just kind of came up as a result of a casual conversation,' McConnell said. Koos mainly provides unique insights about Chinese gold market. (Back to top) CIVILIAN TIME MILITARY TIME CIVILIAN TIME MILITARY TIME 12:01 AM 0001 5:00 PM 1700 (Seventeen hundred) 5:00 AM 0500 10:00 PM 2200 10:00 AM 1000 (Ten hundred) 11:30 PM 2330 12:00 PM (Noon) 1200 12:00 AM . However, until the missing audit reports show up we can only look at this case as its presented by the US government through the documents that are publicly available. RSS Feeds . The 1974/1975 and 1978 reports refer to the audits conducted in 1974 and 1977. Equal Employment Opportunity. The event, Sept. 23, 1974, is often inaccurately called the last audit of Fort Knox. So once you have done that, and that seal remains unbroken, then I am not sure what other benefit there would be to going back into it at that point. One of the most sensitive secrets protected by the Washington establishment is the massive cache of gold reserves held at the federal depository in Fort Knox, Kentucky. According to the excel sheet the US Mint stores 312 tonnes in 9999 fine gold, spread over 3 depositories; Fort Knox 15 tonnes, Denver 100 tonnes, West Point 197 tonnes. Pursuant to that order, the Committee for Continuing Audit of the U.S. Then, the official response from the offline department to my request I received on May 13 as a PDF attachment (click here to view) oddly enough itsdated March 25, 2015 but not sent to me at thetime. At its peak, 649.6 million ounces were stored at Fort Knox on December 31, 1941. The public may never know. Scales at the Mint used to weigh the bars often didnt work properly. Written by Jan Nieuwenhuijs, originally published at Voima Gold Insight. If official documents come to surface I will report accordingly. Atthe congressional hearing in 2011 the IG stated to be 100 % certain all gold stored by the Mint was inventoried and audited, yet his department had accessto only a fraction (4) of all audit reports (13). Did The Dutch Central Bank Lie About Its Gold Bar List? No outside experts were allowed on the site for the audit, either,providingfodder for all kinds of conspiracy theorists. More from the 1985 report: The audit procedures followed [at the FRBNY] were essentially the same as those followed at Mint institutions except that assay samples were not taken to verify the purity of the gold and the audited gold was not under committee control after the audit. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The reports from 1974 and 1977 weve extensively analyzed in my previous post Second Thoughts On US Official Gold Reserves Audits, published on February 9, 2015. Ive found many anomalies that well discuss. Welcome to the Coronation! For the first time photographing is being permitted inside the Depository.. Last time: This picture dates from 1974 - the last time civilians were allowed inside - and shows Mrs. Mary Brooks, Director of the Mint surrounded by gold in one of Fort Knox's vaults I also want to assure you that the physical security over the gold reserves is absolute. There can be no world reserve currency without appropriate gold reserves supporting it, providing essential confidence and credibility. 4,243 bars were relocated from vault Jcompartment 19, to vault J compartment 2, at the Denver depository. I'm not a professional auditor (if you are one please contact me), but common sense suggests that when irregularities are found the sample size . From 1993 to 2008 the remaining 3 % of the gold reserves stored at the US Mint hasbeen audited I assume. In October 1984, 4,136,046.924 fine troy ounces of gold were reaudited at the United States Mint, Denver. Because there remains so little information about the contents of the gold vault, a lot of theories crop upregarding what's really inside Fort Knox. There has not been any movement of inventoried gold since that time. GAO stands for General Accounting Office, OIG stands for Office of Inspector General. You can change the usage of cookies in your browser. Official records claimed 20,000 tons in the 1950s. The answer is, he cant. Tiger Woods unleashes his lawyers on porn site after it Bannon is 'going to war' against Jared, 'crying Ivanka' and A whole hue world! Upload by MysteryManagement Fort Knox and the gold dipped tungsten bars - Michael Rivero showAre the gold bars in Fort Knox really made of the precious metal. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin initiated the visit, along with U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie and Gov. In short, this all sounds like the audit process has a number of cracks through which accounting mistakes can easily slip through. Official Joint Seal inspection records from Fort Knox, June 1998 (courtesy of Koos Jansen through Freedom of Information Act). US citizens were required to sell their gold bullion - bars and coins - back to the State. Between 1933 and 1937, this increased . When the mint finally produced the audit documentation, Jansen received 134 lightly redacted pages (rather than the estimated total of 1,200 pages). Try Army A-Z. COIN & MEDAL PROGRAMS, History of U.S. Why might the government entrust such inexperienced employees with this important task? Schultz from the New York Fed was part of the continuing audits committee and therefor the FRBNY was supposed to be audited. The assay tests found no irregularities. The Armored Force School and the Armored Force Replacement Center began operations at Fort Knox in October 1940. Cleverly located at the intersection of Gold Vault Road and Bullion Boulevard, the bullion depository at Fort Knox was constructed and housing the growing government stock of gold by 1937. In addition, the committee will include technicians from the Bureau of the Mint who are trained in assaying and weighing gold bullion. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. "Dear US Mint, We Gave You The FOIA Funds, Now Give Us The Fort Knox Audit Documents!", November 2016 "US Mint Releases New Fort Knox "Audit Documentation". The reports were not present at the National Archives, the OIG or at the Treasury Department. He said this, but there is no proof. Despite continued inquiries, the US Mint refuses to offer up proof of the exact amount of gold held at Fort Knox. 147.4 million fine troy ounces, valued at $6.2 billion, is stored in 13 . Answer (1 of 2): Internally, it is done annually. The First Critical Observations. To access the gold vault at Fort Knox, you'd need to make your way through a network of security measures. The Fort Knox facility, a hyper-secure fortress in Kentucky that is part of quintessential American lore, is . Not only were the vault compartments at the FRBNY exempt from being sealed, in addition, for an unknown reason assay tests were never performed at the FRBNY! July 1986 12,477,777.638 [this number Icopied from the 1986 report]. Theoretically, if the seal hasnt been tampered with, this is as good as verifying the metals themselves. Monetary Gold Stock of the United States However, there has been considerable doubt over the years as to whether the depository actually held any gold. Us, ALL Fort Knox is home to more than 30 commands and organizations with a daytime population of about 26,260 Soldiers, civilian employees and Family members. However, the documents released are incomplete and reveal the audit procedures have not been executed proficiently. ALL COIN PROGRAMS, National Purple Heart Hall of The missing audit reports and assay reports feed into our skepticism. And the problem goes far beyond missing audit reports. Although the quality of the gold in the custody of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York cannot be readily assayed,. The other two-thirds, however, have not been inventoriedthat is according to my understandingor assayed since somewhere between 1975 and 1986. It is surrounded by an active U.S. Army fort, guarded by the U.S. Mint Police and protected by layers of security measures, including a blast proof 22-ton door, 16,000 cubic feet of granite, 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, 750 tons of reinforcing steel and 670 . More false statements by the auditor have appeared, further eroding its credibility. Government-owned Goldare not in our collection." At the hearing Thorson presented exhibits to support his case 100 % of the gold held at the US Mint has been audited. In my previous post, from March 2018, on the audits of US official gold reserves, I have exposed that during the audit procedures of the US official gold reserves from 1974 through 2008, repeatedly audit staff deviated from the auditing . The Fort Knox facilitys reputation is thanks to its world-renowned system of security measures, from countless cameras to U.S. Mint Police guards, military helicopters, land mines, fences of barbed and electric wire, and a virtually impregnable vault door. Since there are far too many gold bars to count at once, the audit is carried out piecemeal and only small samples are taken for assaying. Coins, American Miles Franklin sponsored this article by Gary Christenson.The opinions are his, and they are not investment advice. All the golden coins that were handed in supposedly accumulated to the greatest gold pile on earth. The target this time is the United States Treasury Assay Office in New York . Protected by a 109,000-acre U.S. Army post in Kentucky sits one of the Federal Reserve's most secure assets and its only gold depository: the 73-year-old Fort Knox vault. As a freebie trip for 4 select political insiders, last Monday's trip to Fort Knox was undoubtedly a memorable one . 1495,not enacted) in 2011 the Inspector General (IG) of the Treasury presented a case all is fine, but all is not fine. Many conspiracy theorists - like the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA)- believe the gold doesn't really exist, there isn't as much as the government claims, or the government has sold it off for years. In 2008, presidential candidate Ron Paul unsuccessfully called for an audit of the US Federal Reserve and Fort Knox,but his skepticism echoed that of other conspiracy theorists. Representative Alex Mooney (R . This effort to audit the Fort Knox gold, the Federal Reserve, and its policies toward gold is now carried on by the younger Paul, Rand, who currently serves as a U.S. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump hinted at the idea that there just might be no gold in the U.S. They could only find 2 reports I didnt posses previously, of the audits conducted in 1985 and 1986. 1126, San Diego, CA, 92128, USA . The reports I did find, and are now publicly available, are: Coincidentally, or not, these reports are exactly the same ones as listed by Thorson at the congressional hearing in 2011 (exhibit 1, framed in red). In the 1980 report we can read the audit procedures and a few other snippets (well quickly jump through) that help us understand how and where the audits were conducted: Audit procedures included (1) inspecting the joint audit committee seals used to control compartments containing previously audited gold; (2) comparing the records for each compartment inventoried to the identifying information on the gold bars; (3) weighing, from each compartment inventoried, at least one randomly selected melt in each fifty melts (a melt, averages about 20 bars cast from one crucible of molten gold); (4) removing samples from a bar in each of the melts weighed and having the samples assayed; (5) verifying the mathematical accuracy of all inventory records; (6) verifying the inventoried gold to the institutions records; (7) verifying the quantities shown by the institutions records to the control accounts for gold maintained by the Bureau of the Mint and to the central accounts maintained by BGFO; (8) placing audited gold bars in compartments under Official Joint Seal and audit committee control; and (9) reviewing and evaluating internal controls and security procedures. Each gold bar is 7 inches x 3 and 5/8 inches x 1 and 3/4 . He attempted to pinpoint how the Treasury Department verifies that the gold in its vault is both present and real. PBOC Gold Purchases: Separating Facts from Speculation. walked past guards armed with submachine guns and through a 3-foot thick steel door into the . Given the date range of your request 1975-1984, the nature of the report an annual audit of gold, and the fact that reports of similar type have been periodically published on the Internet, it is likely that copies and drafts of these reports are in the legal and physical custody of the Department of the Treasury. The Facebook predator who lured schoolgirls to run away with him is one of 7,000 sex fiends who offended Do not sell or share my personal information. And the vault has also been a setting place for several movies, the most famous being the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger when the titular character foiled a plot to contaminate the bullion, Mnuchin said it was the first time Fort Knox opened its vaults to outsiders since a Congressional delegation and some journalists were let in to view the gold for the first time in 1974. Government-owned Gold performed annual audits of Treasurys gold reserves from 1975 to 1986, placing all inventoried gold that it observed and tested under an official joint seal. Fort Knox gold subject of hearing. Koos is in the company of monetary scholar Jim Rickards and former U.S. Representative Ron Paul in publicly campaigning for more transparency in the financial system and the gold market. By also inviting the press to witness the Congressional inspection, the Mint is clearing away cobwebs and re-assuring the public that their gold is intact and safe. Telephone: (502) 624-2386. The assayer is unknown and there was no assay report included in the audit report. The door weighs 22 tons and is 21 inches thick, and the roof is bomb proof. Facilities, Production Ideas, Gifts for Two months later I still got no response. Sets, Commemorative 213K subscribers in the Wallstreetsilver community. Fort Knox Internal Review and Audit Compliance. When I logged in at my account at the FOIA website, I saw my request had disappeared. Shipping within New Zealand. Manyquestion the amount of gold that supposedly exists in the vault,and wonder what else hides within the building'swalls. . Though the media and members of government were allowed access in 1974 to take pictures, the last actual audit of Fort Knox occurred in 1953 immediately after President Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration. One of last year's uproars was the decision by US officials to carry out an audit of these gold vaults.