The largest gold reserves are in the storage of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York - there are more than 500,000 gold bars (25% of world reserves). There is more gold in the bank than in Fort Knox, most of the treasures belong to foreign governments.

The value of gold is decisive for most of many world currencies. After the Second World War, the United States launched the Bretton Woods system, in which the cost of one American dollar was 1.35 troy ounces of gold (1 ounce = 888.671 mg). The system was officially closed in 1971, when gold reserves were not enough to cover the cost of paper money in circulation.