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Mnuchin to Make Rare Visit to Fort Knox Gold Depository

US Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin / Getty Images
August 21, 2017

Steven Mnuchin will become only the third treasury secretary to visit the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Ky. on Monday.

Mnuchin joked how he hoped the gold was still in the depository when he talked to an audience in Louisville, Ky. earlier Monday, Bloomberg reported.

"I assume the gold is still there," Mnuchin said. "It would really be quite a movie if we walked in and there was no gold."

Prior to his post in the Trump administration, Mnuchin was a banker and film producer who worked particularly on action films. A number of action films over time have been set at the Bullion Depository, one of the most famous being the 1964 James Bond film, Goldfinger.

Visits to the classified facility, built in 1936, are extremely rare due to security reasons. In 1974, the Mint gave a tour of the facility to select members of Congress to quell rumors that there was not actually any gold in the facility.

In the past, the Bullion Depository has securely held the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, an original copy of the Magna Carta, and the Hungarian Crown Jewels.

The total value of the Bullion Depository's contents is valued at approximately $200 billion, but the last time it was counted was in 1953, according to Mnuchin.