The Golden Rule or Fool's Gold Fort Knox the world's most secure vault It holds over 161 million ounces of gold for the US Government Status Report of But what is the purpose of this gold Back in the 1930s when it was built and the US followed a gold standard it was used for exactly that the money backing the dollar Before 1971 all the paper cash in circulation in the US was backed by gold thus meaning that for every dollar you had in your wallet you could go to the government and exchange it for one dollar worth of gold Any country following this system of handling printing and acquiring cash and gold its currency is said to be following or on a gold standard If not following a gold standard then the government has the ability to print and distribute cash without it having anything to back the cash up with Up until 1971 the US followed a gold standard but ever since then US currency has been a fiat currency that is not backed by gold or any physical asset
