So, you think you can count the bars in a well-packed vault without having to take them out of the vault to count the ones way in the back?
Never said that. What I did say was that bars on the outside edges of the stack could be checked in position. And that each vault team would have to do about 1 lineal foot per day. How about a chute/conveyor system to quickly move them out and to move them back in, or a mini elevator? Hand to hand onto a push cart is for the birds. The Old Fort is gonna have to concede some its stodgy rules to allow for a "modern" and efficient inventory. As long as no one walks out the front door with a bar in their pants or under their coat, security is maintained. Dealers at coin shows will let you look through boxes of coins worth hundreds of thousands of dollars w/o watching over you. I don't see why they need a guard watching every little bar movement. And if I'm spot checking for bad bars I'm going to pay more attention the ones buried deep than the ones more readily accessible. We had the technology to put a man on the moon over 40 yrs ago. I think we can work up an efficient, mechanized/hydraulic, back-saving system to inventory these bars within 2 weeks. If David Copperfield were available he could move all of the bars out of the vault in seconds. A then Kreskin could perform an inventory in his head within minutes as well.
Hold on a minute, I think that's Tim Geithner calling me back on my cell phone..................
[iDo you care to explain yourself? Why so hostile?
I know your hot-button now. There was nothing in my post that was political. Just facts. I won't twist the facts just to fit any politically correct view. You can't change it just because you don't like the truth. But I keep having to correct your posts because they seem to be twisted to fit a certain political view. Is truth and honesty better than political rhetoric?
From Wikipedia - here's your "facts" about the "gold standard". Enjoy. Learn a little more about what you're saying before you accuse people of "twisting the facts".
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard. First, the gold specie standard is a system in which the monetary unit is associated with circulating gold coins, or with the unit of value defined in terms of one particular circulating gold coin in conjunction with subsidiary coinage made from a lesser valuable metal. Similarly, the gold exchange standard typically involves the circulation of only coins made of silver or other metals, but where the authorities guarantee a fixed exchange rate with another country that is on the gold standard. This creates a de facto gold standard, in that the value of the silver coins has a fixed external value in terms of gold that is independent of the inherent silver value. Finally, the gold bullion standard is a system in which gold coins do not circulate, but in which the authorities have agreed to sell gold bullion on demand at a fixed price in exchange for the circulating currency.
Differing definitions A 100% reserve gold standard, or a full gold standard, exists when a monetary authority holds sufficient gold to convert all of the representative money it has issued into gold at the promised exchange rate. It is sometimes referred to as the gold specie standard to more easily identify it from other forms of the gold standard that have existed at various times. A 100% reserve standard is generally considered[by whom?] difficult to implement as the quantity of gold in the world is too small to sustain current worldwide economic activity at current gold prices. Its implementation would entail a many-fold increase in the price of gold.[citation needed]
This is due to the Fractional-reserve banking system. As money is created by the central bank and spent into circulation, the money expands via the money multiplier. Each subsequent loan and redeposit results in an expansion of the monetary base. Therefore, the promised exchange rate would have to be constantly adjusted.
In an international gold-standard system (which is necessarily based on an internal gold standard in the countries concerned)[19] gold or a currency that is convertible into gold at a fixed price is used as a means of making international payments. Under such a system, when exchange rates rise above or fall below the fixed mint rate by more than the cost of shipping gold from one country to another, large inflows or outflows occur until the rates return to the official level. International gold standards often limit which entities have the right to redeem currency for gold. Under the Bretton Woods system, these were called "SDRs" for Special Drawing Rights.[citation needed]
Sorry to all who are having to put up with this bs. I'm done with this particular discussion. Cheers.
Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally
FWIW, I communicated with a friend who was on the 1974 Fort Knox gold vault tour. He said that the individual vaults were relatively small, packed solid from the back forward with multiple "walls" of gold bars that stretched from side to side and from the floor to near the ceiling. The only exception was that the front "wall" did not go all the way to the ceiling.
I would speculate that the partial wall was the result of the vault containing some round number (multiple of 100? multiple of 1,000?) of bars that the partial wall brought the total count to.
The point is that the vault is so solidly packed that the only way to count the bars in the back is to move them all to another, empty vault and count them as they go by. The number of empty vaults available to move bars into limits the speed at which you can count all of the bars in all of the vaults.
TD
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
According to an article by David Ganz, the gold ranges from .900 fine (melted down coins) to .9996 fine, representing gold purchased by the U.S. over the years.
It is my understanding that most bars are approximately 400 troy ounces.
TD
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
Comments
Never said that. What I did say was that bars on the outside edges of the stack could be checked in position. And that each vault team would have to do about 1 lineal foot per day. How about a chute/conveyor system to quickly move them out and to move them back in, or a mini elevator? Hand to hand onto a push cart is for the birds. The Old Fort is gonna have to concede some its stodgy rules to allow for a "modern" and efficient inventory. As long as no one walks out the front door with a bar in their pants or under their coat, security is maintained. Dealers at coin shows will let you look through boxes of coins worth hundreds of thousands of dollars w/o watching over you. I don't see why they need a guard watching every little bar movement. And if I'm spot checking for bad bars I'm going to pay more attention the ones buried deep than the ones more readily accessible. We had the technology to put a man on the moon over 40 yrs ago. I think we can work up an efficient, mechanized/hydraulic, back-saving system to inventory these bars within 2 weeks. If David Copperfield were available he could move all of the bars out of the vault in seconds. A then Kreskin could perform an inventory in his head within minutes as well.
Hold on a minute, I think that's Tim Geithner calling me back on my cell phone..................
roadrunner
I know your hot-button now. There was nothing in my post that was political. Just facts. I won't twist the facts just to fit any politically correct view. You can't change it just because you don't like the truth. But I keep having to correct your posts because they seem to be twisted to fit a certain political view. Is truth and honesty better than political rhetoric?
The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard. First, the gold specie standard is a system in which the monetary unit is associated with circulating gold coins, or with the unit of value defined in terms of one particular circulating gold coin in conjunction with subsidiary coinage made from a lesser valuable metal. Similarly, the gold exchange standard typically involves the circulation of only coins made of silver or other metals, but where the authorities guarantee a fixed exchange rate with another country that is on the gold standard. This creates a de facto gold standard, in that the value of the silver coins has a fixed external value in terms of gold that is independent of the inherent silver value. Finally, the gold bullion standard is a system in which gold coins do not circulate, but in which the authorities have agreed to sell gold bullion on demand at a fixed price in exchange for the circulating currency.
Differing definitions
A 100% reserve gold standard, or a full gold standard, exists when a monetary authority holds sufficient gold to convert all of the representative money it has issued into gold at the promised exchange rate. It is sometimes referred to as the gold specie standard to more easily identify it from other forms of the gold standard that have existed at various times. A 100% reserve standard is generally considered[by whom?] difficult to implement as the quantity of gold in the world is too small to sustain current worldwide economic activity at current gold prices. Its implementation would entail a many-fold increase in the price of gold.[citation needed]
This is due to the Fractional-reserve banking system. As money is created by the central bank and spent into circulation, the money expands via the money multiplier. Each subsequent loan and redeposit results in an expansion of the monetary base. Therefore, the promised exchange rate would have to be constantly adjusted.
In an international gold-standard system (which is necessarily based on an internal gold standard in the countries concerned)[19] gold or a currency that is convertible into gold at a fixed price is used as a means of making international payments. Under such a system, when exchange rates rise above or fall below the fixed mint rate by more than the cost of shipping gold from one country to another, large inflows or outflows occur until the rates return to the official level. International gold standards often limit which entities have the right to redeem currency for gold. Under the Bretton Woods system, these were called "SDRs" for Special Drawing Rights.[citation needed]
Sorry to all who are having to put up with this bs. I'm done with this particular discussion. Cheers.
I knew it would happen.
I would speculate that the partial wall was the result of the vault containing some round number (multiple of 100? multiple of 1,000?) of bars that the partial wall brought the total count to.
The point is that the vault is so solidly packed that the only way to count the bars in the back is to move them all to another, empty vault and count them as they go by. The number of empty vaults available to move bars into limits the speed at which you can count all of the bars in all of the vaults.
TD
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
It is my understanding that most bars are approximately 400 troy ounces.
TD