Any mention of Fort Knox brings to mind James Bond battling Oddjob deep in the facility’s vaults. Remember the scene? A timer on a dirty atomic bomb was ticking away the seconds before the device would explode and make America’s gold supply radioactive and thus worthless.

But now a less-exciting but still newsworthy chapter is unfolding for the foreboding concrete, steel and granite warehouse also known as the United States Bullion Depository. President Trump said he’s personally accompanying Elon Musk on a tour of the mysterious Kentucky institution.

“I’m gonna go with Elon,” Trump told a jubilant crowd a few days ago at the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) annual conference in Washington. “Would anybody like to join us? Because we want to see if the gold is still there.”

Musk also took to the CPAC stage for a rollicking interview peppered with crowd-pleasing quips about the possibility of a field trip to Fort Knox.

“We all want to see it—it’s the public’s gold,” Musk said. “We want to make sure somebody didn’t spray paint some lead or something, you know?”

But some seem more serious about the issue. The welfare of the $425 billion in gold has been on the mind of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for about 10 years. That’s how long he’s been trying to get in to inspect it. On one occasion, he persuaded the. Secretary of the Treasury to approve a visit, but scheduling short-circuited the plan.

“Most of the central banks around the world still have gold,” Paul recently told Fox News, “and it’s an implicant trust that the dollar still has some backing.” He quoted a Treasury official as saying the U.S. keeps gold on hand “in case we need it.”

And the occasion could arise.

Return to the gold standard?

The world of commerce has operated on an international monetary system based on the gold standard several times. It was in place from the 1870s to the early 1920s, the late 1920s to 1932 and from 1944 to 1971, when the U.S. unilaterally pulled out. Not a single country’s using it these days.

What it did was tie the value of paper currency to a predetermined amount of gold in an effort to eliminate inflation. Believe it or not, the government would actually redeem U.S. currency for gold until it stopped in 1934. A few of us remember when the U.S. set the price of gold at $35 per ounce, a long way from the $3,000 mark it’s now approaching.

Every country in the world has replaced the gold standard with fiat currency—paper money that has value only because governments say it does and people accept it.

That may seem a little fishy to Trump. During his first term as president he indicated interest in returning to the system. A Trump administration official who wrote a chapter on the Federal Reserve in Project 2025 suggested it might be a good idea, too. If it were to happen the gold supply at Fort Knox would regain its former prominence.

Be that as it may, Trump and Musk seem ready to explore the depository. What they find there may or may not live up to their expectations for their outing in the Bluegrass State.

A tour of Fort Knox

The gold bullion stored in the national depository weighs 147.3 million troy ounces, the equivalent of 161.6 million regular ounces. A ton contains 32,000 ounces, so that means the place has 4,603.1 tons of gold. Just imagine!

The depository contains some gold coins, but most of the precious metal is stored in bars measuring 7 inches by 3 and 5/8 inches by 1 and 3/4 inches. Each bar weighs 400 ounces or 27.5 pounds. But the bullion may not glitter quite the way some might imagine. No one’s at work keeping it polished, according to reports.

Shiny or not, gold began arriving there in 1937 on U.S. Mail trains from the Philadelphia Mint and the New York Assay Office. The 1st Cavalry Regiment was standing guard over the shipments.

Only small quantities have ever been removed—just enough to test for purity. None has been added in long time, either.

Something like 59% of America’s gold supply is ensconced there, with the rest stored in other government vaults. Add up all of the nation’s gold and it comes to 8,133 metric tons, far more than any other country is hoarding. In fact, the U.S. has nearly as much gold as the next three largest gold-holding countries combined—Germany, Italy and France.

But how secure is the America’s gold at Fort Knox?

Fort Knox: The lay of the land

Camp Knox, as it was once known, was created during World War I. Today, the daytime population is 26,000, including soldiers, family members and civilian employees. The base covers 109,000 acres in three Kentucky counties. The building contains 16,000 cubic feet of granite, 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, 750 tons of reinforcing steel and 670 tons of structural steel.

It takes a village to gain entry to the vault because no one person knows all the procedures necessary to open the door. Not many people have laid eyes on the inside of the building or its contents, either. Visitors have been allowed in only three times.

If Trump follows through on his vow to visit Fort Knox, he’ll be only the second president to make the pilgrimage. Franklin Roosevelt stopped in to see the gold in 1943.

Journalists and members of Congress were allowed into the building in 1974 to squelch rumors that the gold had been removed. The visitors were satisfied that it was still there.

In 2017, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin visited with Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and congressional representatives.

But the lack of visitors doesn’t necessarily mean the gold supply’s neglected. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says an audit is conducted annually and “all the gold is present and accounted for,” according to the Associated Press.

But even if it’s not neglected, it’s sorely undervalued.

A windfall waiting to happen

The gold in Fort Knox has been valued at $42 an ounce since 1973 for a total of $11 billion. Recognizing its true current could lead to some interesting results, according to a blog attributed to Frank Holmes, CEO of U.S. Global Investors (GROW).

“Let’s say we were to revalue those reserves at today’s price of around $2,900, which some people are in favor of,” the blog said. “The total value, then, would jump to a staggering $760 billion, creating a windfall of $749 billion.”

Ed McKinley is Luckbox editor-in-chief.