Has anyone been to see the gold?

There are regular tours of the Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan, where you can see (some of) the gold reserves of sixty foreign countries. The above photo is from a New York Federal Reserve informative web site. Interpretation: White guy (second right) to make sure everything goes according to rules and operating procedures; Black guys (right and third right) to do heavy lifting and grunt work; Latino guy (second left) to operate machinery; Jewish guy (left) to make sure no one is being ripped off; Asians missing because too smart to hang out with schmucks in a basement? Anyone wishing to accuse me of racism owes the Fed a dollar.


"The gold stored at the Federal Reserve Bank of New
York is secured in a most unusual vault. It rests on the
bedrock of Manhattan Island — one of the few foundations
considered adequate to support the weight of the
vault, its door, and the gold inside — 80 feet below
street level and 50 feet below sea level.


In mid - 2004, the Fed’s vault contained roughly
266 million troy ounces of gold (1 troy oz. is 1.1 times
as heavy as the avoirdupois ounce, with which we
are more familiar), representing 25 to 30 percent of
the world’s official monetary gold reserves. At the time,
the vault gold’s value was $9.5 billion at the official
U.S. Government price of $42.2222 per troy ounce, or
about $90 billion at the market price of $400 an ounce.


At the current official U.S. Government price, one of
the vault’s gold bars (approximately 27.4 pounds) is
valued at about $17,000. At a $400 market price, the
same bar is worth about $160,000."

I want to go on a tour. Anyone want to go with me? Drinks afterwards on Stone Street, near the Federal Reserve.