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There is lots more to know than is set out here. And this is not offered as a defense of the Fed which certainly does not operate in the best interest of a majority of American citizens.

However, that said, a great deal of information was offered under oath to Ron Paul's committee in the summer of 2011 by Counsel to the fed.

First place, in 1934, the Fed complied with FDR's order and returned its entire stock of Treasury owned Gold to the Treasury in exchange for "Gold Certificates" which represent a sufficient degree of compliance with the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 to permit the fed to manage the gold in accordance with its statutory directive.

Since 1934, the Treasury has acquired something like an additional 1400 Metric Tons +/- of gold which is not owned by the fed nor subject to Gold Certificates which are owned by the fed but which additional gold may be managed by the fed on behalf of the Treasury--total somewhere around 9200-9400 MT +/-.

Much of the Treasury gold is held in cages under the NY Federal Reserve Bank. The gold shown as owned by the Treasury at that location is in fact physically there.

However, general discussions and legal forms in circulation imply that the Treasury may have loaned some gold to bullion bank dealers which in fact may have sold some or all of what they borrowed in the market.

However the terms of the loan required that physical location of the loaned gold is in the possession of the NY Fed which holds possession as a pledge on behalf of the Treasury to secure the borrower's obligation to return the gold on termination of the lease.

Subsequent market transactions in connection with the gold have been executed subject to the terms of the lease agreement under which the seller owned the gold--i.e. the buyer bought the gold at market and paid for it even though it did not get delivery and did not have the right to get possession of the gold outside its cage in the basement of the NY Fed and was at risk that the Treasury would itself take possession of the gold back on a lease termination without even reimbursing the buyer for the price it paid.

One might speculate that the terms of sale further provided that the seller lessee of the gold had the right and obligation to obtain possession by paying the buyer some amount--probably trading market value on the day before the repossession.