Why 400 oz. gold bars?
CaptHenway
Posts: 32,118 ✭✭✭✭✭
Here's a dumb question I suspect cannot be answered:
Why is the (approximately) 400 ounce bar the gold standard (pun intended) for gold ingots? That's what you see when you see a picture of a vault at Fort Knox.
How long has the U.S. Treaury been making 400 ounce bars?
How was that weight picked, rather than, say, 200 oz. or 500 oz or???
At 400 troy ounces, we're talking about 30 avdp. pounds. There was no OSHA back then to say that that was the most an employee could safely lift. Was it just trial and error to see what worked best?
This sounds like a job for SuperBurdette!!!!
TD
Why is the (approximately) 400 ounce bar the gold standard (pun intended) for gold ingots? That's what you see when you see a picture of a vault at Fort Knox.
How long has the U.S. Treaury been making 400 ounce bars?
How was that weight picked, rather than, say, 200 oz. or 500 oz or???
At 400 troy ounces, we're talking about 30 avdp. pounds. There was no OSHA back then to say that that was the most an employee could safely lift. Was it just trial and error to see what worked best?
This sounds like a job for SuperBurdette!!!!
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.
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That's my best guess. Maybe it's tied to whatever that federation of european standard gold coin .1867 ounce swiss/french/belgium/italy thing? Or maybe its sovereign-based?
--Severian the Lame
<< <i>What would the value for 400oz have been at the time? Maybe that played a part. >>
At $20.67/ oz., 400 ounces = $8268.
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
<< <i>When you figure that out tell why malt liquors packaged as 40 ozers? 24 oz or 36 ozers not enough? Colt 45 baby..............MJ >>
The beer so strong they don’t even call it beer — they call it liquor. And don't forget Olde English 800
Yogi Berra
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
as for 400 oz, it's the right size for one big bar, comfortably moved by one person.
it's like, why do you get 3 tacos in the value meal at taco bell? because 2 is not enough and 4 is too many.
Liberty: Parent of Science & Industry
<< <i>Don't you love those scenes in movies, such as in "Three Kings" in which folks load dozen or so "gold bars" of this size into a duffel bag and carry it around?
as for 400 oz, it's the right size for one big bar, comfortably moved by one person.
it's like, why do you get 3 tacos in the value meal at taco bell? because 2 is not enough and 4 is too many. >>
Agree---400 oz is a handy size and a nice round number.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>London Good Delivery Bar >>
Good information. So, I guess "400 ounce bar" is just a generic term for a wide range of weights that fall within a convenient size category. The refiners can pour gold into a mold and worry about the weight later, after it cools.
Last year we had a customer inquire about buying a "400 ounce gold bar." We contacted a likely source, and he had one in stock that was something like 406.38 ounces. He said he could get one that weighed exactly 400 ouces, but it would take a while. The customer took the 406+ ounce bar.
It is, indeed, heavy.
TD
(As much as I'd like to.)
I knew it would happen.
<< <i>Well, you can't just stuff a 30 pounder into a pocket and walk off with it, either.
(As much as I'd like to.) >>
I could have gotten it into my pocket, but I would have needed six pair of suspenders!!!!!!