 Before 1932 Gold coins circulated freely in the United States as legal money, and gold bullion was owned by banks and other private entities.  In 1933 US Congress enacted a package of laws which removed gold from circulation as money, and which made private ownership of gold in the U.S. (except for coins in collections or jewelry such as wedding rings) illegal.

 All gold in circulation was seized by the government in exchange for dollars at the fixed rate of $20.67 per ounce. If you were an owner of Gold in the US, than you were required to trade that gold for money. So with the United States government seizing all of the Gold in the US it meant that they had mass stockpiles of gold but now where to store it.

 Located in Fort Knox, Kentucky  The Gold Vault was completed in December 1936 at a cost of $560,000, or about $7.5 million in 2007 dollars.  The majority of the United States gold reserve was shipped to this site soon after its completion.

 During World War II, the repository held the original U.S. Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

 Is made with Granite walls and is protected by a blast-proof door that weighs 22 tons.  No single person is entrusted with the entire combination to the vault. Various members of the Depository staff must dial separate combinations known only to them.  The two-story basement and attic building is constructed of granite, steel and concrete. Its exterior dimensions measure 105 feet by 121 feet. Its height is 42 feet above ground level

 The vault casing is constructed of steel plates, steel I-beams and steel cylinders laced with hoop bands and encased in concrete.  The vault roof is of similar construction and is independent of the Depository roof.  The facility is ringed with several fences and is under armed guard by officers of the United States Mint Police.

 The gold stored in the Depository is in the form of standard mint bars of almost pure gold or coin gold bars resulting from the melting of gold coins.  The approximate size of the bars of gold are 7 x 3-5/8 x 1-3/4 inches.  They are stored in the vault compartments without wrappings. When the bars are handled, great care is exercised to avoid abrasion of the soft metal.

 Amount of present gold holdings is million ounces.  At April 2008 rates of $913 an ounce it is worth roughly $134 billion  The only gold removed has been very small quantities used to test the purity of gold during regularly scheduled audits. Except for these samples, no gold has been transferred to or from the Depository for many years.

 The highest gold holdings was million ounces, on December 31,  All of the gold in the depository, if pure, could form a cube 19.7 feet cubed, For a comparison, all the gold ever mined in the world would form a cube 64.3 feet cubed.