Those who have seen the James Bond film Goldfinger are familiar with Fort Knox, the notorious United States bullion depository that has become a hotbed of conspiracy theories.
Fort Knox is said to hold millions of ounces of gold within its bombproof granite walls. But that's far from certain.
Rumor has it that all, or most, of the gold in Fort Knox is gone…
Let us unveil the secrets of one of the most protected gold vaults in the world.
What is Fort Knox?
Fort Knox is a top-secret U.S. army base in Kentucky.
A highly classified bunker surrounded by steel fences and multiple alarms, Fort Knox has a bomb-proof roof and is guarded by Apache attack helicopters.
The building itself is pretty hardcore, to say the least: it’s made of concrete-lined granite and reinforced with steel to withstand possible attacks.
A gold vault was built inside Fort Knox in 1935 to protect America’s gold during growing world turmoil. A small army post back then, Fort Knox was chosen because of its military support and its location behind the mountains, which makes it less vulnerable to air attacks.
The gold was shipped into Fort Knox in 1937 on a special nine-car train under the protection of the 7th U.S. Cavalry Brigade.
How much gold is in Fort Knox?
Literally, tons and tons of gold.
The government says Fort Knox currently holds 147.3 million ounces of gold, with a “book value” of $6.22 billion.
But this book value is based on a fixed price of gold that was set back in… 1973, at $42 an ounce! If we take the current market value of gold, Fort Knox’s gold reserves are worth, roughly speaking, a whopping $274 billion!
Of course, if they are still there. But it’s hard to know for sure.
Some conspiracy theorists even claim that Fort Knox’s gold bars were actually tungsten bricks painted to look like gold, while the real gold was secretly sold off by the government.
Others said the gold was stolen to “manipulate commodities markets” to plunge gold prices and boost the U.S. dollar.
As a conspiracy-theorist group known as Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee stated: “The gold market is being manipulated by the Fed. It’s involved in gold swap agreements with foreign banks. Gold is a major determinant of interest rates.”
But the government politely disagrees… saying the U.S. Treasury conducts annual audits of the vaults to ensure that all the gold in Fort Knox is safe.
Well, we guess we’ll just have to take its word for it.
Is it possible to visit Fort Knox?
Unfortunately, not really, unless you are a U.S. Treasury auditor.
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