[KarlInOhio]

I would love to see the details of the contract under which Germany deposited the gold. Did the contract specify that their gold bars would be stored in a segregated manner, or did they just deposit a specific weight of gold and had rights to get that amount of gold back? Did they have a notification requirement or was the gold to be available upon demand?

If you deposit money at the bank, you don't expect to get the same bills back and might have to wait to get it depending on the account you put it in. On the other hand you expect to get the same bills back if you put them in a safe deposit box or else someone has picked the lock. In which way were the Germans promised the Federal Reserve would act? And did the Fed get caught dipping into the till by selling short gold which they had no contractual right to access in anticipation that they would never be caught?

Without knowing the terms of the deposit contract, I have no idea whether the Fed was acting in bad faith or not.

[dennisw]

I would love to see the details of the contract under which Germany deposited the gold. Did the contract specify that their gold bars would be stored in a segregated manner, or did they just deposit a specific weight of gold and had rights to get that amount of gold back? Did they have a notification requirement or was the gold to be available upon demand?

The popular image is that each nations gold is held in a separate bullpen. You see this in movies and in photos. In other words segregated (as you wrote).

>>>>>> This German gold was deposited at the NY Fed during the Cold War when a Soviet invasion or attack was a possibilty. Why tempt the Russkies by holding so much gold so close to East Germany and Russian tanks? So it was sent to NY