Treasury Audits the NY Fed’s Gold Vault

This is cool shit, the Treasury Dep’t has been quietly auditing the gold vaults of the New York Fed, in part to put persistent conspiracy theories to rest.  They’ve been counting and testing and even drilling into some of the ingots according to a story at the Chicago Tribune:

In New York, about $21 billion in U.S. gold is locked inside the Fed’s vault. It’s stored alongside bullion from three dozen other countries and organizations such as the International Monetary Fund. All told, about 23% of the world’s official gold reserves are stored in the central bank’s vaults.

The audit, which began in January, took place 80 feet below the Fed’s limestone and sandstone Italian Renaissance building in Manhattan’s financial district. Visitors to the vault make their way through a steel and concrete entrance where a 90-ton door rotates open.

Inside, a massive scale is ringed by 122 blue cages that hold about 530,000 gold bars — 34,021 of which belong to Uncle Sam. The auditing team counted the U.S. stash, selecting more than 350 bars from which to extract samples for assaying.

No Bruce Willis and/or Jeremy Irons do not show up, but the whole thing is worth a read.

Source:

What’s in your vault? Uncle Sam audits its stash of gold at the New York Fed (Chicago Tribune)