Completed in 1937, the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky is the primary location of the US gold reserves and other precious items.
According to the December 31, 2015 report of the US Bureau of Fiscal Service, Fort Knox holds 147,341,858.382 ounces of the 261,498,926.230 ounces in the total US reserve. At December 31, 2015 prices for gold, Fort Knox’s share of the reserve was valued at $6,221,097,412.78.
This is down from its peak of 649.6 million ounces during World War II, but it, along with the rest of the US gold reserve is about 2.4 times greater than the next leading country, Germany.
If melted together, the Fort Knox gold could form a cube 20.3 feet (6.9 m) on each side. Considering that all the gold ever refined in history is about 174,100 metric tons, Fort Knox holds about 4.62% of all the gold ever refined.
In addition to gold, Fort Knox has been the depository for precious items such as the US Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, one of the four copies of the Magna Carta, and the Hungarian Crown Jewels during World War II.
Categories: Government, History, Luxury and Extravagance, Military and Warfare, Money, US History
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