Fort Knox is on the books at 42 dollars an ounce
The US gold reserves of 261.5 million troy ounces sit on the Treasury’s books at the price of 42.22 dollars an ounce fixed by law in 1973 — around 11 billion dollars of book value against a market value in the hundreds of billions. With the split across Fort Knox, West Point, Denver and the Federal Reserve.
Fort Knox is on the books at 42 dollars an ounce
The United States hold 261,498,926 troy ounces of gold — and still value it at the price of $42.2222 fixed by law in 1973 an ounce. On the Treasury’s balance sheet that comes to only 11.0 bn $. At today’s market price of $4,097 an ounce it would be 1.07 trn $.
The bar is to scale: the book value takes up only 1.03 % of its width. The difference of roughly 1.06 trn $ is the “hidden reserve” regularly invoked in budget debates — a revaluation would make it visible on the balance sheet without a single ounce leaving the vault.
Source: US Treasury, “Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve”, as of 10/31/2026 (public domain); gold price from our own data. 93.8 % of the holdings sit in Deep Storage at the three vaults Fort Knox, West Point and Denver, the rest with the Federal Reserve and as coinage metal of the US Mint. The constancy is remarkable: across 178 monthly reports since 2012 there are only 3 different totals — between the first and the last reporting date the holdings change by 27 ounces.
Where the numbers come from
This chart is calculated from our own price recordings. The current price in it is updated every minute during trading hours; the longer series are recalculated twice a day.
- our own measurement Our own exchange rates (EUR/USD and others) — new values every trading day
- our own measurement Our own daily closing prices for the metals — new values every trading day
- our own measurement Our own minute-by-minute prices for the current day — new values every minute
- external source US Treasury — Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve — new values monthly
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