Mnuchin: I Assume Fort Knox Gold Is Still There

US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin visits Fort Knox Gold

Later tweeted ‘Glad gold is safe!’

Only the third Treasury Secretary to visit the fortified vault, last visit was 1948

Last Congressional visit was 1974

Speculation over existence of gold in Fort Knox is rife

Concerns over Federal Reserves lack of interest in carrying to an audit on gold

Gold was last counted in 1953, nine years before Mnuchin was born

Mnuchin may be looking to prevent countries and states from worrying about and repatriating their gold

US Treasury Secretary ‘assumes’ the gold is still in Fort Knox, 64 years after it was audited.

81 years after it was built Fort Knox received its third visit from a US Treasury Secretary yesterday, Steven Mnuchin.

The fortified facility is reportedly surrounded by 30,000 soldiers, tanks, armored personnel carriers, attack helicopters, and artillery. Despite this, there is still concern as to whether the gold is there.

As he headed in, Mnuchin told an audience “I assume the gold is still there…It would really be quite a movie if we walked in and there was no gold.”

With a background in Hollywood it was unsurprising that Mnuchin’s imagination appeared to be getting carried away with tales of finding the $200 billion of gold missing.

Missing gold: fact or fiction?

An empty Fort Knox is an issue far removed from the hills of Hollywood and has far more basis in reality than many give it credit for.

For many decades campaigns have been led for the US Treasury and government to audit the gold and to testify to its existence.

The gold has not been ‘counted’ since 1953. This was less than 20 years after Fort Knox was built. Since then there has been no official count or audit.

The facility (purportedly) holds 147 million ounces of gold, worth around $186 billion. This is small compared to the amount purportedly held at the Liberty Street facility, in New York.