I have a calendar on my desk that gives different little bits of trivia information every day.

One of these nuggets was in the form of this question, "How much does the standard gold bar at Fort Knox weigh?" I'll give you the answer in just a bit.

The question conjures up all kinds of memories in my mind of the old movie westerns in which the villains hold up the stagecoach and demand the 'strong box' containing the gold. Then the shotgun rider and the stage driver pick up a box about 3 foot long by 2 foot square and toss it to the ground. Then the villains usually shoot the lock off the box and empty the gold bricks into their saddle bags, throw the saddle bags over the back of a horse, shoot the place up and ride off with the loot. All the people that handle the gold do so with very little effort, tossing it around like sacks of potatoes.

I must admit that I never gave any of this much thought until I got into the jewelry business and began to learn about gold and it's properties.

Now back to the question, "How much does the standard gold bar at Fort Knox weigh?"

The answer is 27 & 1/2 pounds.....and the bars measure ONLY 7 inches long by 3 & 5/8 inches wide by 1 & 3/4 inches thick. That is some serious density.

Although one could fit 4 or 5 bars of this size into ONE standard saddle bag and 4 or 5 into the OTHER saddle bag, I don't know very many people (if any) that could lift the bags, much less throw them over the back of a horse of normal height.

This property of density is one of the things that makes gold so valuable (i.e. expensive). Whoever came up with the idea of charging by the pound for gold was a shrewd businessman.

It just makes me laugh a good chuckle nowadays when I see a western movie and watch how they handle the "gold". I can't remember any of them having handled it in such a way that revealed the true character of gold as a HEAVY METAL. I guess it wouldn't be as dramatic if the villains loaded up a few bars of gold, shrugged their shoulders and said "I reckon we'll have to come back fer the rest".

I'll bet you're dying to know how much a 27.5 pound bar of gold is worth.

Today's gold price is $937.50 per ounce.  So...... how many bars would you like to buy at $376,016.03?