FORT KNOXIOUS

The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located next to the United States Army post of Fort Knox, Kentucky. It is operated by the United States Department of the Treasury. The vault is used to store a large portion of the United States' gold reserves as well as other precious items belonging to or in custody of the federal government. It currently holds 147.3 million troy ounces (4,580 metric tons) of gold bullion, a little over half the total gold presently held by the federal government.[2][3] The United States Mint Police protect the depository. The Treasury built the depository in 1936 on land transferred to it from the military. Its purpose was to house gold then stored in New York City and Philadelphia, in keeping with a strategy to move gold reserves away from coastal cities to areas less vulnerable to foreign military attack. The first set of gold shipments to the depository occurred during the first half of 1937. A second set was completed in 1941. These shipments, overseen by the United States Post Office Department, totaled roughly 417 million troy ounces (12,960 metric tons), almost two-thirds of the total gold reserves of the United States. During World War II the signed original Constitution of the United States, Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address and drafts of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address were stored in its vault for protection, as was a Gutenberg Bible and an exemplified copy of Magna Carta. After the war, the depository held the Crown of St. Stephen as well as stockpiles of opium and morphine. Today[when?] it is known to hold ten 1933 Double Eagle gold coins, a 1974-D aluminum cent, and twelve gold (22-karat) Sacagawea dollar coins that flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia, specifically STS-93 in 1999. The depository is a secure facility. Between its fenced perimeter and granite-lined concrete structure lie rings of razor wire. The grounds are monitored by high-resolution night vision video cameras and microphones. The subterranean vault is made of steel plates, I-beams and cylinders encased in concrete. Its torch-and-drill resistant door is 21 inches (53 cm) thick and weighs 20 short tons (18 metric tons). The vault door is set on a 100-hour time lock, and can only be opened by members of the depository staff who must dial separate combinations. Visitors are not allowed inside. Due to its reputation for security, the phrase "as safe as Fort Knox" has become a cliché for safety and security. The building measures 105 feet (32 m) by 121 feet (37 m) and is 42 feet (13 m) above ground level. Materials used to construct the building include 16,500 cubic feet (470 m3) of granite[7] (quarried at the North Carolina Granite Corporation Quarry Complex[38]), 4,200 cubic yards (3,200 m3) of concrete, 750 short tons (680 metric tons) of reinforced steel and 670 short tons (610 metric tons) of structural steel. The outer wall is made of granite-lined concrete. There are guard boxes at each of the four corners of the structure. Sentry boxes are located at the entrance gate. The words "United States Depository" are inscribed over the marble front entrance. Above the inscription is the seal of the Department of the Treasury, in gold. Offices of the Officer in Charge and the Captain of the Guard open upon the entrance lobby. At the rear of the building is another entrance used for receiving bullion and supplies.[7] Below the fortress-like structure lies the gold vault. The vault is made of steel plates, steel I-beams and steel cylinders laced with hoop bands and encased in concrete.[7] It is less than 4,000 square feet (370 m2) in area, and two stories high.[39] The Mosler Safe Company made the vault. According to a Mosler brochure, both the vault door and emergency door are 21 inches (53 cm) thick and made of the latest torch-and-drill-resistant material of the time. The main vault door weighs 20 short tons (18 metric tons), and the vault casing is 25 inches (64 cm).[40] The vault door is set on a 100-hour time lock and is rarely opened.[39] To open the vault, members of the depository staff must dial separate combinations known only to them.[7] There is an escape tunnel from the lower level of the vault to be used by someone who has been accidentally locked in. It can only be opened from inside the vault and only when the vault doors are closed and locked. The tunnel leads into the main building.[41] The facility is surrounded by fences and is guarded by the United States Mint Police. Between the outer perimeter and the depository walls lie rings of razor wire. These grounds are monitored by high-resolution night vision video cameras and microphones.[39] The depository is equipped with its own emergency power and water systems.[42] Treasury Secretary Mnuchin inside the vault For security reasons, visitors are not allowed inside the depository grounds. There have been only three reported occasions when guests outside the Treasury Department have made inspection tours of the vault. The first was by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1943. A second inspection was made by members of the United States Congress and the news media on September 23, 1974, led by the Director of the United States Mint, Mary Brooks.[43] The tour was in response to a conspiracy theory, circulated by Peter Beter, that elites had secretly removed the gold in the depository and that the vaults were empty.[41] The third inspection tour was on August 21, 2017, when Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell visited with a small group of officials and staff, including Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin.[44][37] According to a tweet by Mnuchin, and an internal email by Chief of the U.S. Mint Police Dennis O'Connor, he was the first Treasury Secretary to visit the depository since John Wesley Snyder in 1948.[45][37] Current holdings 1933 double eagle As of July 31, 2020,[needs update] Fort Knox holds 147.34 million troy ounces (4,583 metric tons) of gold reserves with a market value of US $290.9 billion, representing 56.35% of the gold reserves of the United States.[46][47] As of 2021, the U.S. gold reserves total 8,134 metric tons. The next highest holdings were Germany's, whose gold reserves were 3,364 metric tons.[48] The gold bars held in the depository are approximately seven inches long, three and a half inches wide, and one and three-quarters inches thick. While each of these bars contains the equivalent of about 400 troy ounces (12.4 kilograms) of pure gold, they differ in their composition. Mint gold bars are a minimum of 99.5% fine gold, while coin bars, which were made from melted gold coins, are the same composition as the coins from which they were made.[49] The 1934 London Good Delivery List, published by the London Gold Market (a precursor of the London Bullion Market Association), defined coin bars as "bars assaying 899 to 901 per mille or 9151⁄2 to 917 per mille and containing between 350 and 420 ounces of fine gold".[50] These two different levels of fineness reflected the composition of gold coins of the day. U.S. coins produced from 1838 through 1933 were made with 90% gold alloyed with 10% copper,[51] while U.K. crown gold coins were minted with a gold proportion of 22 parts to 24 (91+2⁄3%). These lower gold ratios contrast to many 99.9% fine gold bullion coins minted in modern times since older coins were intended for circulation while newer coins are not. In 2011, the U.S. Treasury's full detailed schedules of gold bars were published by the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services as part of submissions for its hearing titled "Investigating the Gold: H.R. 1495, the Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2011 and the Oversight of United States Gold Holdings".[52] From the schedule, it can be seen that roughly 64% of the gold bars at Fort Knox have a fineness between 899 and 901, 2% have a fineness between 901.1 and 915.4, 17% have a fineness between 915.5 and 917, and 17% have a fineness greater than or equal to 995. The average fineness is 916.7.[53][54] Under the currency reforms enacted by Roosevelt, the federal government owns the gold and holds it as security for $11 billion in gold certificates issued, in book-entry form, to the Federal Reserve Banks.[55] The Federal Reserve Banks use these certificates as a small fraction of the collateral for Federal Reserve Notes.[56] In addition to the gold, the depository currently holds ten 1933 Double Eagle gold coins, a 1974-D aluminum cent, and twelve gold (22-karat) Sacagawea dollar coins that flew on the Space Shuttle.[37][57] Reputation US Bullion Depository. Taken in 1968, four years after the movie Goldfinger The term "safe as Fort Knox" has become a simile for safety and security in popular vernacular.[58][59][60] As an example, 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary candidate Elizabeth Warren, when outlining in a Medium post a plan to make voting machines secure, stated "Our elections should be as secure as Fort Knox. But instead, they're less secure than your Amazon account."[61] Samsung Knox, part of Samsung's SAFE (Samsung For Enterprise) initiative, was named after Fort Knox, connoting a sense of security.[62] In popular culture Given its reputation for securely holding large amounts of gold, breaking into the depository has been featured in many popular books, movies, games, and television shows.[58] A well-known example is the 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger by Ian Fleming,[63] in which the eponymous villain attempts to steal the gold, but in the 1964 film adaptation instead executes a convoluted scheme of irradiating all the gold in the vault in order to drive up the price of gold. The 1937 film Behind the Headlines, released the same year as the first wave of gold shipments to Fort Knox, was about gangsters stealing gold from an armored car en route to the depository.[60] In the 1951 comedy Comin' Round the Mountain, Abbott and Costello follow a treasure map and unwittingly dig into the vault at Fort Knox, where they are immediately arrested.[60] In the 1952 animated cartoon 14 Carrot Rabbit, Bugs Bunny tricks Yosemite Sam into digging into the vault, where he too is immediately arrested.[6

THE ASTRAL TRAVELERS