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Gold holdings

World's gold from 1845 to 2013, in tonnes (metric tons in the U.S.)
Official U.S. gold holdings since 1900
World's gold holdings per capita, in grams

Gold holdings are the quantities of gold held by individuals, private corporations, or public entities as a store of value, an investment vehicle, or perceived as protection against hyperinflation and against financial and/or political upheavals.[citation needed]

During the 19th and early 20th Century eras of the gold standard, national governments undertook an obligation to redeem the national currency for a certain amount of gold.[1] In such times, the nation's central bank used its reserves to meet that obligation, backing some or all of the currency in issue with the metal it held.[2]

The World Gold Council estimates that all the gold ever mined, and that is accounted for, totals 187,200 tonnes, as of 2017[3] but other independent estimates vary by as much as 20%.[4] At a price of US$1,250 per troy ounce, marked on 16 August 2017, one tonne of gold has a value of approximately US$40.2 million. The total value of all gold ever mined, and that is accounted for, would exceed US$7.5 trillion at that valuation, using WGC's 2017 estimates.[a]

  1. ^ Schenk, Catherine (2013). The global gold market and the international monetary system (PDF). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137306708. Retrieved 17 January 2018.
  2. ^ "Central Bank Gold Reserves, an historical perspective since 1845", Timothy Green, World Gold Council Study No.23, November 1999
  3. ^ "How much gold has been mined?", World Gold Council
  4. ^ "How much gold is there in the world?", BBC News, 1 April 2013


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