Connecting America through Coins
Standard View
The United States Bullion Depository Fort Knox, Kentucky
- Amount of gold holdings in 2006: 147.3 million ounces.
- The only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity during regular audits. No other gold has entered or left the depository for many years.
- The gold is held as an asset of the United States at a book value of $42.22 per ounce.
- The depository opened in 1937. The first gold arrived in January that year.
- Highest amount of gold holdings in the 20th century: 649.6 million ounces
(December 31, 1941). - Size of a standard gold bar: 7 inches x 3-5/8 inches x 1-3/4 inches.
- Weight of a standard gold bar: about 400 ounces or 27.5 pounds.
- Construction of the depository:
- Building materials used included 16,000 cubic feet of granite, 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, 750 tons of reinforcing steel, and 670 tons of structural steel.
- Cost of construction was $560,000.
- Building was completed in December 1936.
- At certain times in the past, the depository has stored valuable items such as:
- Declaration of Independence
- U.S. Constitution
- Articles of Confederation
- Lincoln's Gettysburg address
- Three volumes of the Gutenberg Bible
- Lincoln's second inaugural address
- Magna Carta
- Crown, sword, scepter, orb, and cape of St. Stephen, King of Hungary (returned to the government of Hungary in 1978).
- The depository is a classified facility. Without exception, no visitors are admitted.
