Much have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen. John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer, 1817
Allegations of missing gold from our Fort Knox vaults are widely being discussed in European financial circles. Edith Roosevelt
Strange – because it isn’t particularly useful for anything ... All the gold mined from the Earth in the whole of human history will only just fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools. And it’s that scarcity that makes gold valuable. But gold is only one of many rare elements Professor Brian Cox, Wonders of the Universe 2/4: Stardust, BBC 2011
Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold. William Shakespeare, II Henry VI I ii 11
How quickly Nature falls into revolt when gold becomes our object. William Shakespeare, Henry IV II, King, Globe Theatre, Sky Arts 2012
There is thy gold – worse poison to men’s souls,
Doing murder in this loathsome world,
Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet V i 80-82, Romeo to Apothecary
All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told.
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold.
Gilded tombs do worms infold. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice II vii 65-69, Morocco reading from scroll in golden cask
I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It ernes me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires. William Shakespeare, Henry V IV iii 24-27, King Harry
I do not like to think that any law can be passed that will make it possible to submerge the gold standard in a flood of irredeemable paper currency. Henry Cabot Lodge senior, 1913
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. There is no safe store of value. Alan Greenspan, Gold and Economic Freedom
An almost hysterical antagonism toward the gold standard is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions. They seem to sense ... that gold and economic freedom are inseparable. Alan Greenspan
The London Assay Office valued the gold at £840; High Street jewellery stores offered to pay on average 25% less; and the on-line companies quoted on average 37% less; however, Postalgold.com’s first offer was only £116.18. My Worst Deal, BBC 2012
Gold’s father is dirt, yet it regards itself as noble. Yiddish proverb
10 years ago the price of gold was £275 an ounce ... Gordon Brown was instructed to sell 415 tons of the UK’s gold reserves ... [to] the Rothschilds. Ian R Crane, interview On the Edge, AlexG
The desire of gold is not for gold. If is for the means of freedom and benefit. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Gold shines like fire blazing in the night, supreme of lordly wealth. Pindar, Olympian Odes
It’s one of the most secure structures in the world. It safeguards the vast wealth of the United States. And its name is synonymous with one of the most precious commodities in the history of the world: gold. But behind this building’s stone exterior are secrets, secrets so outrageous, so controversial, so potentially dangerous that they must be hidden from the public. America’s Book of Secrets s1e4: Fort Knox, History 2012
America’s gold reserves are held in four US Mint depositories. ibid.
Having reduced society to squalor, the Federal Reserve bankers decided that the Gold Standard should be removed. In order to do this they needed to acquire the remaining gold in the system. So under the pretence of helping to end the Depression came the 1933 gold seizure. Under the threat of imprisonment for ten years everyone in America was required to turn in all gold bullion to the Treasury, essentially robbing the public of what little wealth they had left. And at the end of 1933 the Gold Standard was abolished. John Nada, Wake Up Call
To what do you not drive human hearts, cursed craving for gold! Virgil, Aeneid
Hidden in the glorious wildness like unmined gold. John Muir
Gold conjures up a mist about a man, more destructive of all his old senses and lulling to his feelings than the fumes of charcoal. Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby
Gold is a way of going long on fear, and it has been a pretty good way of going long on fear from time to time. But you really have to hope people become more afraid in a year or two years than they are now. And if they become more afraid you make money, if they become less afraid you lose money, but the gold itself doesn’t produce anything. Warren Buffett
A thirst for gold,
The beggar’s vice, which can but overwhelm
The meanest hearts. Lord Byron, The Vision of Judgment st43
Commerce has set the mark of selfishness,
The signet of its all-enslaving power
Upon a shining ore, and called it gold;
Before whose image bow the vulgar great,
The vainly rich, the miserable proud,
The mob of peasants, nobles, priests, and kings,
And with blind feelings reverence the power
That grinds them to the dust of misery.
But in the temple of their hireling hearts
Gold is a living god, and rules in scorn
All earthly things but virtue. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab V iv
Welcome to the world’s most secure vault ...
Completed in 1936, it’s encased in 16,000 cubic feet of granite and 4,200 cubic yards of cement.
The vault door weighs an astounding 22 tons and is made of a 21-inch-thick material that’s resistant to drills, torches and explosives.
It comes with a bombproof roof, too.
Additional layers of physical security include: video cameras, minefields, barbed wire, electric fences, armed guards – even unmarked Apache helicopter gunships.
Oh, and it’s stationed on a 109,000-acre US army post.
So what’s inside?
Well, it depends on who you ask.
The government will tell you that almost 5,000 metric tons of gold, or roughly 3% of all the gold ever refined throughout human history, is safely sealed inside the vault.
Others will tell you that the vault (the United States Bullion Depository – known as Fort Knox) is totally empty.
What if the skeptics are right? And all this protection is just an elaborate cover-up?
What if there’s actually no gold at Fort Knox? Wall Street Daily online article Louis Basenese 16th July 2013
$66 Billion In Gold Missing From Fort Knox: 300 truckloads of bullion were simply driven away. The Globe article 15th December 1981
I think it can hardly be disputed that the statesmen and financiers of Europe are ready to take almost any means to reacquire rapidly the gold stock which Europe lost to America are a result of World War I. Louis McFadden
But Churchill was not a splendid Chancellor. He had one great decision in front of him and he got it wrong. In March 1925 he summoned four economists to dine at the Treasury to thrash out the burning economic issue of the day – the Gold Standard ... Globalisation with Britain at the centre ... The radical young economist John Maynard Keynes thought that going back to gold would devastate Britain’s already weakened industry. By instinct Churchill was also against ... And hell it was. The return to the Gold Standard made British exports more expensive, including coal ... An industrial dispute was coming to the boil. The mine owners stood firm. Then at one minute to midnight on the third of May 1926 the TUC called a general strike. Andrew Marr’s The Making of Modern Britain, BBC 2009
And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. Genesis 2:12
Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold. I Kings 10:14
Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold. Psalms 119:127