What a Private Visit to the Austrian Mint Revealed About Fort Knox Gold
Here's what a visit to the world famous Austrian Mint revealed about the future of gold.
I recently had the honor of a private tour of the world-famous Austrian Mint.
And while Vienna, Austria, is 4800 miles and an ocean away from the U.S. Army’s Fort Knox site in Kentucky, what I discovered there reveals important information about the security of gold vaults and the accumulation of gold wealth within them.
Let me explain.
The Focus on Gold Security and Quality
During my recent visit to the Austrian Mint, no other guests were around. None were scheduled to be there, either. In fact, as I learned from Andrea Lang, the Director of Marketing and Sales, the Mint has very few visits for security reasons.
Security at the ground level just to enter general office areas of the Mint is tight. You can only gain entry with an invite. There is a rigorous ID check and secured entryway at the main floor entrance, which can only be opened with temporary passes, and that’s just to access the office space. From there, security gets increasingly tighter as you get closer to the gold-melting rooms.
In addition, you are not allowed to take any coins into any areas where coins are designed or created (from melted gold bars from Switzerland). This is not just a rule for guests of the Mint, but also for its staff.
The entry and exit to the gold coin design and production areas take place through what I can best describe as a Star Trek-like, fully enclosed tubular glass pod. Only one person can enter the pod at a time. Its technology can detect any coins or metals. This way, there is no chance to even fake a gold coin and replace it with a real one while entering or exiting the facility.
Once through the first security portal and multiple sets of enforced doors, I was lead to different areas across the gold coin production line. That included stages of the process ranging from melting gold to verifying the quality of the gold coins produced to “imprinting” the coins with the appropriate three-dimensional design.
You see, premium collectible coin designs are crafted with an extremely rigorous, multi-step coin design process through. Highly trained and talented artists work to turn ideas for gold or silver coin series (anything from a floral motif to historical figures) into high-quality, premium collectible coins.
Once past designers and metal specialists’ space, things turn to quality and control, gold melting and coin production. There are a maze of fully secured rooms with machines that each have tasks to further the premium gold production process. These machines weigh the gold that becomes coins at multiple steps along the way – all working to ensure that each coin produced from melted gold bars is regulation quality.
As one Mint official told me and I saw first-hand, the Austrian Mint is extremely focused on quality at every step of the process.
For anyone here in our Prinsights community who’s looking to invest in gold bars or collectible coins, what you should know is that quality matters. If you invest in any gold (or silver) physical asset, ensure it’s from a place that spares no expense and cuts no corners.
Gold is Hard Money And Wealth Preservation
The Austrian Mint is world-famous for its premium Vienna Philharmonic Series. I bought a silver coin from this series after my visit. Readers who have seen my work over the years know that I buy silver coins (more affordable than gold) as they make terrific annual real-asset, wealth-accumulating gifts for my nephews and niece.
There is something special about holding a physical asset with real wealth and design backing it. It is that unique trait that makes it more tangible than fiat or digital money. And of course, in an emergency situation, if you can’t access electronic money or digital accounts, precious metal coins could be your only source of exchange in the form of a hard currency.
This week, in our exclusive Nomi Note from the Austrian Mint, we shared how there are many ways to unlock the potential that gold offers investors. We also revealed two ETFs that we’re actively watching right now.
When I was waiting for my turn at the Mint’s private shop, I was surprised to see so many people walk in to buy gold and silver coins. As I learned, given Europe’s history of wars and current proximity to risk, gold and silver coins are purchased as much for a geo-political stability hedge as they are for wealth preserving purposes.
The Austrian Mint has also seen an increase in gold coin purchases since the Russian-Ukraine war escalation in March 2022. European Gold ETFs also saw record inflows in 2024 as proxies for buying physical gold, indicating a growing appetite for the precious metal.
What I discovered during my conversation with the CEO of the Austrian Mint, Gerhard Starsich is that gold purchased at the Austrian Mint is also nontaxable for EU citizens. Another advantage of the facility is that purchases can be done both in person or online, and assets can be stored securely in the vaults at the Austrian Mint.
Austrian Mint, Fort Knox and Gold
Lately, there’s been a swirl in the press about the gold in Fort Knox. In fact, readers have asked me what I think about the issue and what it means for the price of gold.
First, and to be clear, I have never had a private tour of Fort Knox. The last visit made was by President Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin in 2017. That was the first visit since a 1974 group of journalists were allowed a visit. Prior to 1974, the only person allowed in the vaults was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who established Fort Knox.
However, I believe its security measures can’t be less than the Austrian Mint’s, which are airtight. No single person knows or has all the security protocols to access the gold.
Second, it’s important to consider the history of Fort Knox to get a sense of why that security is immutable. The Fort Knox gold bullion depository was completed in 1936. It got its first gold shipment (via the postal service) in 1937.
The reported highest amount of gold holdings it ever held was 649.6 ounces during WWII (as recorded on December 31, 1941). That quadrupling of gold reflected governments like the UK storing gold there during WWII to secure it, and countries bought U.S. weapons with gold.
Today, according to the U.S. Treasury, Fort Knox holds about half of the U.S. Treasury’s present gold holdings, or 147.3 million ounces of stored gold.
Since WWII, the only gold removed has been in small quantities for quality measuring purposes to ensure no impurities have corrupted the gold’s purity or its value.
The gold is held as a Treasury asset and priced at the book value of $42.22 an ounce.
Fort Knox’s gold stockpile is worth about $400 billion in today’s prices. Each gold bar there weighs about 400 ounces or 27.5 pounds (and I can tell you from holding a gold bar at the Austrian Mint – they are heavy – I could not hold two in one hand)!
The upshot is that I don’t believe that the amount of gold at Fort Knox has changed beyond any quality control fluctuations, since 2017 when the last Trump administration entourage visited Fort Knox. Plus, if (or when) President Trump (or Elon Musk) visits the site, it would be impossible to eyeball the amount of gold held there or its value anyway. That’s why the annual Fort Knox audit records remain the only verification method. Already signaling this, U.S. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent said no gold had been taken from Fort Knox.
Do Questions About Gold at Fort Knox Impact its Price?
No, questions about that gold will not impact its price. The gold at Fort Knox and the other places where U.S. Treasury gold is stored simply represents but one historic and constant demand on existing gold supply.
There are many other factors we’ve highlighted at Prinsights that come into play in terms of the price of gold. Those factors range from geo-politics to tariffs and from central bank buying to economic risk – and even factors impacting the every-day investor looking to preserve wealth with physical assets.
Finally, I’d like to express great appreciation to the Austrian Mint for their time and consideration. And a sincere thank you to Rich Checkan and the team at Asset Strategies International for their support with my visit to the Mint.
An extremely interesting post.