A 1973 law keeps America’s $1 trillion gold reserve on the books at $11 billion

There are 261.5 million troy ounces of gold sitting in the vaults of the US Treasury. On paper, they’re worth $11.04 billion, because Congress fixed its price per ounce at $42.22 in 1973, and nobody has changed it since. The market value of gold was $4,027 an ounce on October 23, 2026, which means that the reserve is actually worth about $1.05 trillion. Yet, the books say it’s merely 1% of that value.

Most people picture Fort Knox, but in reality, only 56% of the US Treasury’s gold is held there. Here’s the full list:

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York also holds gold for foreign governments, but the 13.45 million troy ounces belong to the US Treasury. The Mint’s reserve is used for making coins.

The US government used to pass laws fixing an official price of gold—in 1934, it was $35 an ounce, then $38 in 1972. President Nixon ended dollar-gold convertibility in 1971. Congress raised the official price to $42.22 in 1973. As of today, 31 U.S.C. § 5117(b) still fixes the price at that rate.

Since then, gold has traded freely, so the price set by Congress is outdated. But that law still sets the price for the Treasury to use when it books its gold.

The figure is an accounting convention—it doesn’t per se express how much the gold is worth. The gold certificates of the Federal Reserve are issued with that same price. On October 21, 2026, the Fed’s weekly report (H.4.1) showed its gold certificate account at $11.037 billion.

The US Treasury gold reserve weighs approximately 17.9 million pounds. Gold is about 19.3 times as dense as water, so that weight fits into roughly 14,900 cubic feet—one-sixth of an Olympic swimming pool, which holds 660,000 gallons.

The total is equivalent to about 654,000 standard 400-ounce bars.

These figures assume that the reserve is made up of pure gold. But the Mint, for example, holds gold coming from melting old coins, which are around 90% gold. So, its part of the reserve is somewhat bigger.

The law might have fixed the accounting figure in place, but the market value moves every day. For every $100 increase in the price per ounce of gold, the reserve’s market value grows by $26 billion.

On January 29, gold hit a record of about $5,502 per ounce. At that price, the US Treasury's reserve was worth $1.44 trillion. While the market value has since then decreased, the book value stayed at $11.04 billion.