The Bank of England is the second-largest keeper of gold in the world, with enough to cover the entire country in gold leaf.
This is about Venezuela getting, or not getting, – or even which Venezuelan gets – the gold from the BoE.
Now think a little differently. Imagine that we had our own Maduro or Chavez. Red Ken, Corby or the Lord High Tax Denouncer. Who thinks that other peoples’ gold might still be in the BoE to be allocated?
You mean there’s some left over after we’ve gold plated all that legislation coming out of Brussels? Wow.
It needs to be made into a new unit of measure to go alongside the new post-metric but not Imperial measures: the Wembley Stadium, the Wales, the Double Decker Bus, the Olympic Swimming Pool and of course, the Ferguson*.
*: Named in 2020 in honour of Professor Neil Ferguson this is the new name for an order of magnitude (10 times). Usage: That mathematical model is out by at least a Ferguson, if not two.
Do they have a vault in the City? Or do they use the Royal Mint? Or do they have a scatter of vaults?
Or do they actually stock spray-painted bars of tungsten?
It’s in the city, inside the main BoE building, under the ground, in the ‘Vault’. There are underground floors “Basement”, ‘Vault” and “sub-vault”.
Big bars and cameras on the way. Bullion movements get a couple of X5s worth of armed police stationed on Lothbury to ensure no-one gets naughty ideas. There are two entrance yards at the Bank, one for ordinary stuff and one for bullion.
If you wanted some you’d take it in transit as there is no way of getting it out of the BoE without some major conflict, or buying off a bunch of low paid security guards. Hmmm
There’s a tiny part of me that hears that and says, “So why haven’t they?” That would impress Johnny Foreigner no end, right?
“Usage: That mathematical model is out by at least a Ferguson, if not two.”
Heheh. And 10 Fergusons = 1 Holyrood.
Do they actually have their own actual bars or is it fungible, deposit 100kg of gold, withdraw 100kg of gold, gold is gold is gold, ten pound note is a ten pound note is a ten pound note.
And isnt most gold deposit “storage”? You dont need the physical gold to sell it, you just tell the “storage company” the ownership has changed. Why would the depositor want the physical metal other than to pave the presidential palace with it.
They actually have different spots on the floor to represent different owners. Sale means moving the gold around in the same place. They do actually move it otherwise an audit is impossible.
Seem to recall one issue arising from the Fire of London was the gold melting in the vaults of the goldsmiths which also held a lot of the government/monarchs gold at the time