I don't understand your question?? If you mean, what does it profit the mint...it does...a lot!!! Speedy
I say that the mint has places they can get it on demand but I don't know if the mint tells where of how they do. Speedy
Gentlemen, It is my understanding that all coins produced by the mint are done so with metal precious or not that is mined and produced in the USA. I am also under the impression that the legislature behind the approval/law granting the coinage is done so by the US Congress. As for stock piles, there are many differing opinoins on this matter. I for one used to think that our monatary system was backed by gold known as the "gold standard" however, this is something of the past I am told. If any others out there have a clear and defined knowledge of this please enlighten us to the new "Fort Knox" Regards, RB
Well--I have read some about Fort Knox but some say that they bet that there is no more gold in FK! Wouldn't it be bad if the US Gov got gold and silver that said "Mined in ____"!! I say that the Gov has mines on US land. As for the New "FK" I'm sad to say that I think it is plastic...many people only use some little card about 2x4 in size. Speedy
The US Mint buys the gold & silver it uses for coinage on the open market - it can come from anywhere. They manufacture the ASE, AGE and APE for one reason - profit. For all intents and purposes the international gold standard collapsed and ceased to exist in 1933. As for Fort Knox, yest there is some gold held there. But the majority of the gold held by the US Govt. resides in a bank vault in New York City. The gold purchased & used by the US Mint is held at West Point.
GDJ.. thanks for the info...however, you might want to check out the legislation on some but not all gold coins.. I have found several gov document indicating that the gold used for production "must" come from the USA..if you know this to be false, it would be interesting to to know why the public document for a coinage act signed by Congress states this. Thanks for your input.. GDJ..Just looked it up so all can be clear on this topic of supply; here goes.. "Sources of Bullion..Secretary of the Treasury shall obtain gold and silver for minting of coins under this section pursuant to the authority of the Secretary under other provisions of law including authority to the use of silver stockpiles established under the Strategic and Critical Materials Stockpiling Act." I suppose if we look up this document we will find the stated terms of bullion supply methods and the power of the Mints Secretary for obtaining them..thanks again for your input and perhaps I can look into the finer details of this and post the findings so we can "share the knowledge" for all of us to learn. Regards..
You may well be correct if talking about a specific coin. And it could also be that the document you speak of is no longer in force. For example - I believe that the original legislation authorizing the minting fo silver eagles required the mint to use silver from what was called the US Strategic Stockpile. But that silver was all used up, I think 2 years ago. Therefore Congress wrote a new law authorizing the mint to purchase silver on the open market.
Hey..you are correct.. I just edited my post..check it out.. www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/dod/dnsc.htm .. WOW!! check out this document..it is all here.
Well I do try to be accurate with my posts - but I certainly make my share of mistakes as well. And if someone points one out to me, I thank them for doing so
To keep current with the laws pertaining to coinage it is easier to use this - Chapter 51 - Coins & Currency
GDJ..and all others who look at the link I posted on this topic..it may very well offer an educational view into the Strategic Materials Stockpiling Act GDJ and I were discussing. Read this for a better understanding of why this exist and the awsome power of the US Mint's Secretary to dip into it for the purpose of minting coinage. If you look on Kitco's site today you will see where the German Political Groups wants to use stockpiled materials to defeat third world poverty (countries) after reading this article on defense stockpiling..I for one agree with the US Political powers that this would be a bad idea. Read on my friends and stimulate your mind!
Ask and ye shall receive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_standard and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system At this point in time, and for the last 30+ years, the dollar, instead of being backed by gold, has, as I understand it, been backed by "the full faith and credit of the United States government." In other words, the dollar is worth a dollar because the government says so! Don't think about that too long, as it's a bit scary!
Those articles, while informative, don't really spell out the answer to the question though. It's a simple fact - the USA ceased to be on the gold standard in 1933. From there forward our money was backed by silver until 1971. After that - USA currency ceased to be backed by any precious metal.
As I recall, though, there was an "official" price of gold up til almost the time when citizens could legally own bullion. As I recall, it was $34 an ounce, and it was Nixon who unhooked us from the "official price".
I do think, howeevr, that the US silver industry (mining) was repsonsible for the law being implemented (same for the silver proof sets). So, while it does not by law have to be USA silver, it is reasonable that a higher demand benefits the USA silver mines.
The price of gold was set and established by international agreement for literally centuries. There were several times in history that Great Britain tried to buck this idea and set their own price of gold. But that always resulted in gold being shipped out of G.B. and sold in other nations at a profit. Eventually they came around and realized that if they hoped to maintain bullion stocks in Britain they had to conform to the rest of the world. But yes you are correct, it was during Nixon's presidency that gold was fianlly permitted to be treated as a free commodity and to trade in a free market system.
