The New York Times/1900/12/01/Unprecedented Gold Supply
UNPRECEDENTED GOLD SUPPLY
Stock in the United States Treasury, $474,108,366—Probably $1,100,000,000 in the Country.
WASHINGTON. Nov. 30.—The largest stock of gold coin and bullion ever held in the United States is now accumulated in the Treasury and its branches. The total has been rising steadily during the whole of the present year, and is now $474,108,366, or about $76,000,000 greater than at the close of 1899.
This gold is not all the direct property of the United States, but is held against outstanding gold certificates. The amount of these less the amount in the Treasury and its branches, was $230,755,809 Wednesday. All the remaining gold, amounting to about $243,000,000, belongs to the Treasury, including the reserve fund of $150,000,000.
The influx of gold into the Treasury comes partly from the new gold from the Klondike and the other mines, but its retention is due to the pressure for currency, which leads to the acceptance of gold certificates and other paper money in preference to coin. The Treasury recently has been shipping small notes in large quantities to New Orleans and other points upon deposits of gold in the New York Sub-Treasury by the New York reserve agents of the Southern banks.
The fact that $474,108,366 is thus accumulated in a sense under a single authority enables an estimate to be made of some of the other visible gold resources of the country. The National banks reported gold holdings on Sept. 5 of about $312,000,000, of which amount $115,018,140 was in the gold certificates issued by the Treasury, makes a total in these two classes of establishments alone of about $670,000,000. This is more than the entire estimated stock of gold in the United States at the close of 1895.
The gold supply of the country on the last day of 1896 was estimated at $692,947,212. The estimated amount Nov. 1, 1900, was $1,080,027,407, and it is probable that the report for Dec. 1 will show at least $1,100,000,000. The Treasury officials are confident that the round sum of $475,000,000 in Treasury gold holdings will soon be attained, and that even $500,000,000 is not beyond reasonable expectation.