06 March 2014

US deep storage gold - weights

Still catching up after my two week holiday, have many posts planned including finishing the fractional bullion banking, the London fix manipulation and legal case, Sprott PHYS redemptions, bitcoin. In the meantime, the table from the last post but by ounces of fine gold:


Similar percentages to the one by number of bars. As Golden Nugget commented, I should note that the spreadsheet is only for US Mint held gold, which is 95% of the total, with the other 5% held at the US Fed. Unfortunately the bar list for that is only supplied as a pdf of a scan so impossible to analyse in Excel.
 
Anyone interested in the reality of the US gold reserves really should read the pdf of hearing 112-41 (see link) as this bascially busts many of the memes around the US gold reserves. I will do a post on that hearing as there is a lot of detail supplied and suprising that I've never seen much commentary around it.

28 comments:

  1. It is interesting that this information, including bar numbers, has been released at this time. If the intent is to calm the waters in the gold market that could possibly backfire if this information increases the calls for an audit. Is this the gold that is supposedly in Fort Knox? Thank you Bron for all of your research and for explaining many of the finer points of the gold market.

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  2. "as this bascially busts many of the memes around the US gold reserves"

    yes (because of details and food for thought) and no (because of shitty reasoning of Mr.Peterson).

    If I would tell the IRS, "sorry, too much work to count the screws in stock for my annual physical inventory, you probably understand that" ....hmmmm, I assume I wouldnt receive much understanding.
    6 Minutes inventory for a value of $500.000 is "much too expensive"? Is that dude completely out of his mind? And even 10% is "too expensive"? And even 10% every 5-10(?) years are "too expensive"?
    But in the meantime amazingly the DHS has enough time and money to order, count and stockpile 1.6 billion rounds of hollow-point ammo, yea that's much more important and fun to audit....or even Obamas dog trainer is paid $102K/yr.... I mean put the numbers in perspective.

    My companies balance sheet is about 5-10Mio. Guess what, takes me/counsel longer than 1-2hours of shitty IRS annual work, but obviously like always, serfs and masters are measured with different sticks.
    Greets, AD

    P.S. @Bron, good to have you back, hope you had a nice vacation.

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  3. Yes, the FRBNY list in the pdf looks impossible to convert to xls after trying a few pdf to xls converters. It's probably possible some way but maybe a specialist in these matters could so it.

    As Bron says, the hearings document is worth reading since it has a lot of good material in it from Eric Thorson and various Treasury folks.

    One interesting observation: in the hearings document there is also a comprehensive list of a lots of assay tests that were done over years such as 208, 2006, 2005, 2004. Treasury maintains that these the bars tested were randomly selected. However all the samples are listed with sample numbers of WP, which suggests they are all West Point. Furthermore, all the bars assayed are .995 fineness or higher.

    Given that over 80% of all US Treasury gold supposedly held is not good delivery (ie < .995 fine), then the assay samples do not sound random, they look to have been deliberately selected.

    Does it infer there is no .995 fine gold in Denver or Fort Knox?



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  4. Bars of gold kept in deep storage freeze
    Spreadsheets published with great ease
    Basically bust many gold reserve memes?

    Examinations of minor variations
    And explanations may promise celebrations,
    But lead instead to great frustrations

    For similarities incidental
    May mask differences fundamental
    As gold moves east from our continental

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  5. From a numismatic point of view it would be interesting to know what's in the 384 bags (73,451.72 fine troy ounces) of gold coins stored in compartment K at the FRBNY. The fineness is listed as either .9 or .9167

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  6. The lists are just lists. No one is saying that they reflect reality. Perhaps they were left in a public internet directory. Deliberately or inadvertently. Who knows at this stage.

    I would think about how the lists create a 'set in stone' pickle, in that future inventories cannot deviate from these lists without explanations.

    There is also mileage to be gained from thinking about how these lists could be accurate in light of various Mint figures and archives from 1968-1982

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  7. My belief is that all the US gold is there and possibly even more if you take into account other countries gold that they'll probably never get back.

    If the US has little or no gold and the Russians know it as a fact they'll imply it at some point if the diplomatic war of worlds continues to crumble.
    We're one incident or mistake away from a serious escalation.

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  8. I suppose listing bars on paper is a good strategy intentional,
    And it may flout a certain wisdom that’s conventional.
    But once paper complication is propounded,
    Alarms and warnings should be sounded.

    That fractionating and hyper-inflatinating is a losing game
    So don’t look for someone else to blame.

    For our gold’s destination has been resolved by fate,
    And as for “giving advice”, it’s far too late.

    So banksters, shift our gold where it be
    Where you say you not sought it to be,
    Somewhere you’ll not want it to be,
    Knowing it’s where it isn’t ought to be.

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  9. "In all, 42 compartments at these 3 hardened facilities hold 699,515 gold bars with a fineness or purity ranging from 0.47 to 0.9999, with an average fineness of 0.9006." (Page 4 of the above linked testimony)

    - Its such an insignificant portion of the total inventory that its probably irrelevant; but still Im curious. What am I missing? The above testimony indicates that purity ranges from "0.47 to 0.9999" yet the excel spreadsheet lists inventory of 0.36 purity……is this just a typo or misstatement by the witness during testimony? I appreciate any insight.

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  10. FOSSE, sorry, I should have been clear, this data was not released recnetly but at the time of the hearing, which was June 2011, in response to requests by Congress reps at the hearing.

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  11. AD, the issue being discussed there is not counting but assay, Ron Paul seems is asking for each bar to be assayed, which is insane IMO due to the massive amount of work involved. As you would know running a business, auditors do not redo all the work you do but use sampling and materiality to confirm the figures you are presenting.

    Having said that, GoldenNugget has a point about the randomness of the assay sampling.

    BillieJones - I think that is most likely just a mistake made during the pressure of testimony.

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  12. Bron,
    If too much work has you sweating it,
    You probably shouldn’t be fretting it.
    Those in the know are not amateurs,
    Consider the parameters
    To optimize criteria, you must decide what’s scarier,
    Accuracy less than you would like, or former Congressmen saying “take a hike.”

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  13. Goldbugs and banksters have goals antithetical,
    So, who loses with notions theoretical?
    Although opinion bias oft encumbers,
    The truths always lurk in the assay numbers.

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  14. In March 68 when we ran out of fine,
    And the Fort Knox dregs were made up of coin,
    It was a coup d'état for the Rothschilds bloodline,
    When the presiding judge got a kick in the groin.


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  15. Bron,
    even assaying (in terms of non destructive testing) each bar with todays technology, shouldnt be such a problem like Peterson exaggerates ("it takes 1280 persons and the room is too small").

    Why not building a couple of robots, each including: ultrasonic scan, eddy current loss scan and spectographic scan. Whenever these different obtained datas of a bar do not fit together, melt it down to be sure.

    No, from the conversation I get the impression, nobody really wants to know. "They" simply dont want to audit it openly.
    On the other hand, I am not in the conspiratard camp to conduct from there, that the gold does not exist.
    Greets, AD

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  16. P.S.
    And in terms of "costs & massive amount of work", look at it like that:

    But the nationalisation of the gold, melting it down and bulding Fort Knox bringing it there, was not an insane amount of work? - Still it was done.

    And to put that also into perspective: Just look at the resources wasted by the USG for putting a satellite and robot on planet mercury. Amazingly, everything can be done, but the gold, no no no, dont touch it that subject, too much efforts.

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  17. P.P.S.
    me again, just cant hold myself over the topic "too much effort":

    Have you heard of the new transgender laws? Just like in the US, also in Berlin/Germany, politians have now decided to build not just male and female toilettes in public buildings, no, we need an additional third toilette, for people that obvious dont know if they have a mumu or a dingdong. UNBELIEVABLE. So much too the topic THIS WORLD IS GOING INSANE!!!!!!!111111

    okay, okay, this is a gold blog I promise to hold myself back (till next time;)

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  18. In my opinion the gold is there and has never been transfered to another location because that would mean to have lost a backstop in case of financial chaos. But the interesting questions is who owns the gold in Fort Knox , how much has been leased out or swapped? If you do a full audit it also means checking the books, which would reveal whether Gold has been leased out, swapped etc.
    That could be one reason why the officials refuse a full audit. Cost is definitely not a reason. Deutsche Bundesbank used to lease out up to 10% until 2008, but then stopped. I would estimate that 50% are leased out because that would be in line with the 50% selling of Bank of England, because both are advised by Wallstreet.

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  19. Oh, dear! Oh, dear!
    Our Fed Chair can not hear.
    Those pleas for audits, let’s be clear!
    Will you please come over near?
    Will you please look in the Fed Chair’s ear?
    There must be something there, I fear.

    Say, look! A bird was in her ear.
    When he is out, she’ll have no fear.
    And again her ear will hear, my dear.

    But alas and alack, I shed a tear
    This bird still resides in her ear
    Giving me even more added fear

    So I bought a new bird feeder
    Just in case our new Fed leader
    Could encourage her deaf ear to drain
    Then-although she’d still sound inane
    She’d no longer be the Fed’s new bird brain

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  20. The game is afoot, replace gold with a crypto currency before the debt and currency crash. Any exposure of the true risks, through reporting or inventory standards will not be allowed. Increasing the debt and large distractions may help, meanwhile Marx commodity currency trying to be subverted with ever more anonymous developers working on a more asian-themed bitcoin....time to take a position.
    "It's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in." Lyndon B. Johnson 31 Oct 1971 ???

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  21. I Think It Was 1972
    Here's Something Else Written in '72 By Curtis Mayfield:

    "BANKERFLY"

    Darkest of night
    With the moon shining bright
    There's a bet goin' strong
    Lotta contracts goin' on
    Manipulation of the hour
    Has an air of great power
    The pukes have envied him for so long
    Oh, Bankerfly
    You're gonna make your fortune by and by
    You never lose, don't ask no questions why
    The only game you know is suppress and lie
    Hard to understand
    What a hell of a ass
    Expert of the slam
    What a mind, for the excellent scam
    No weakness is shown
    His hustle never wrong
    His mind was his own
    But the crook lives alone
    Oh, Bankerfly
    You're gonna make your fortune by and by
    You never lose, don't ask no questions why
    The only game you know is suppress and lie
    The game he plays he plays for keeps
    Hustlin' fools on computer screens tryin' ta take over
    That's what he tryin' to do, y'all
    Taking all till he is dead
    Gambling with paper from the Fed
    Tryin' to take over tryin' to take over
    Tryin' to take over tryin' to take over
    Bankerfly
    The aim of his role
    Was to move a lot of dough
    Ask him his dream
    What does it mean? He wouldn't know
    Thousands of Contracts he’ll confess
    Is the most he'll ever suppress
    But his time's running out
    And there's no happiness
    Oh, Bankerfly
    You're gonna make your fortune by and by
    You never lose, don't ask no questions why
    The only game you know is suppress and lie
    Bankerfly bankerfly
    Bankerfly bankerfly

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  22. I think you'll find Curtis wrote:
    set not bet
    and
    man not ass.

    I prefer man.

    Very good !
    It might well be do or die not suppress and lie as well.

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  23. Definitely 1971, you may be thinking of 'I want his pecker in my pocket.'?


    "It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it." GW B 2000

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  24. Well, This Song I think was conceived in '71 and recorded in '72
    "Just Be Thankful For The Gold You Got"- William De Vaughn:

    Though you may not own a great big paper stash
    Bank account funds
    CD’s in the bank
    You may not have an account at all
    But remember brothers and sisters
    You can still stand tall

    Just be thankful for the gold you've got
    Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac
    Diamond in the back, sunroof top
    Diggin' the scene
    With a banksta lean
    Banksta whitewalls
    Satellite in the back

    You may not go to the bank at all
    But remember brothers and sisters
    You can still stand tall
    Just be thankful for the gold you've got

    Diamond in the back, sunroof top
    Diggin the scene
    With a banksta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh
    Diamond in the back, sunroof top
    Diggin the scene
    With a banksta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh
    Diamond in the back, sunroof top
    Diggin' the scene
    With a banksta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh

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  25. In revelry the evening sped,
    With laughter crowned, till darkness spread
    Her shadows, from the azure height,
    Shone forth the moon, - the summer night
    Blazed with the starry host of heaven;
    Then, kisses to each maiden given,
    Farewell to all, loth to remain,
    Antonio seeks his boat again,
    The dripping oats the moonbeams gild,
    Anon, the loosened sail is filled,
    And in the dim uncertain light,
    The barca wings her rapid flight,
    Forth from the island, far away,
    O'er slum'bring silent Naples' bay.


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  26. Nugget that calls for a Bobbie McFarrin Song: "GET GOLD, BE HAPPY"

    Here's a little song I wrote
    You might want to sing it note for note
    Get gold, be happy
    On every day, the West has trouble
    When we lose gold we make it double
    Get gold, be happy

    Ooh, ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (Get gold)
    Ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (Be happy

    Ain't got no gold, got paper instead
    Somebody came and took your bread
    Get gold, be happy
    The Chinese say our gold is great
    Treasury bonds they liquidate
    Get gold, be happy
    (Look at the Chinese, they’re happy)

    Ooh, ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (Get gold)
    Ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (Be Happy)
    Ooh oo-ooh oo-ooh
    Here we give you some gold
    When you worry, get gold, we make you happy

    Ain't got no gold, ain't got no style
    Too much paper, you can’t smile
    But don't worry get gold
    Although we worry
    ‘Cause we’re led by clowns
    Try not to bring everybody down
    So get gold, be happy
    Get gold, be happy now

    Ooh, ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (Get gold)
    Ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (Be happy)

    (Put a smile on your face, don't bring everybody down)
    Ooh, ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (Get gold)
    Ooh oo-ooh ooh ooh oo-ooh
    (It will soon pass, celebrate it)
    Ooh oo-ooh oo-ooh
    Get gold, be happy
    I'm not worried, I'm got gold.


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  27. I think you guys are wasting your creativity here on this blog, maybe you should start www.goldpoetry.com :)

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  28. Bron---you realize I must respond---This time with a "twin spin"
    First Side: Rolling Stones: :Get off of My Gold"

    I live in an apartment on the ninety-ninth floor of my bank
    And I sit at home looking out the window
    Imagining the gold price had tanked
    Then in flies a guy who's all dressed up like a Union Flag
    And says, here’s your jive paper and I want all of my bars of gold back

    I said, Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Don't hang around 'cause two can’t hold
    All my gold, baby

    The telephone is ringing
    I say, "Hi, it's me. Who is it there on the line?"
    A voice says, "Hi, hello, how are you?"
    Well, I got your gold and I'm doin' fine
    He says, "It's three a.m. and too much manipulation
    Don't you people ever wanna audit the fed?
    Just 'cause you feel so good, do you have
    To drive me out of my head?"

    I said, Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Don't hang around 'cause two can’t hold
    All of my gold baby

    I was sick and tired, fed up with this
    And decided to take a nap on my throne
    It was so very quiet and peaceful
    There was nobody, not a soul at home
    I laid myself out, I was so tired and I started to dream
    In the morning, paper trades were just like
    A flag stuck all over my computer screen

    I said, Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Don't hang around 'cause two can’t hold
    All of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold
    Hey! You! Get off of my gold

    FLIP SIDE: BLUE OYSTER CULT:
    "Don't Fear The Keeper"

    All our vaults have none
    Now, our gold is gone
    Sellers don't fear the Keeper
    Nor do the banker, the shill, they’re the same
    (We’re not like they are)

    Come on Seller
    (Don't fear the Keeper)
    Seller bless the plan
    (Don't fear the Keeper)
    It can multiply
    (Don't fear the Keeper)
    Seller They're the man
    La, la la, la la
    La, la la, la la

    Swiss’s work is done
    Here but now its gone
    Kileo and jewelry
    Are together in purity
    (Kileo and jewelry)
    40,000 tonnes go every day
    (Like Kileo and jewelry)
    40,000 tonnes go every day
    Another 40,000 coming every day
    (We’re not like they are)

    Come on Seller
    (Don't fear the Keeper)
    Seller bless the plan
    (Don't fear the Keeper)
    It can multiply
    (Don't fear the Keeper)
    Seller They’re the man
    La, la la, la la
    La, la la, la la

    Having gold was fun
    Here, but now it’s gone
    Came the last night of sadness
    And it was clear we couldn't hold on
    Then the vault was open and the wind appeared
    The candles blew and then disappeared
    The curtains flew and then he appeared
    (Saying, "Don't be afraid")
    Come on Seller
    (And we had no fear)
    And the gold ran to him
    (Then it multiplied)
    Our gold looked backward and said goodbye
    (It had become like their gold)
    We had blessed their plan
    The Keeper had become our man

    Come on Seller
    (Don't fear the Keeper)





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