MORE ON NEW YORK CITY NUMISMATIC TOURS

Museum & Gold Vault Tour

I enjoyed reading the ANA edition of The E-Sylum and would like to comment on the one about numismatic tours in New York City.

First, let me give you a little background on myself. I am a member of the ANA, paid through December 2020 at which time I will become an emeritus member, and two local coin clubs. I retired but spent thirty years as a banking regulator, mostly as a supervising bank examiner.

The tours that are discussed in the article appear to be mainly tours of the facades of buildings with a numismatic collection. One of the sites mentioned offers much more to the numismatist. In the early 1990's I attended a seminar for regulators at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The last day of the seminar ended early and the Vice President of the New York Federal Reserve offered those of us who were interested a private tour of the bank's Gold vault. While U.S. gold reserves are held at Fort Knox, most of the free world's gold reserves are held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank in a large vault five floors below ground level, surrounded by bedrock. The gold is stored in 128 cages, each containing two to five thousand bars of gold (As I recall, one or two hold gold coins instead).

In 1996, as president of the Northern Valley Coin Club, I contacted the Federal Reserve and arranged for our group to tour the vault. Although not as extensive as the private tour I received, it was still a tour that the club members enjoyed. We also showed off our numismatic knowledge by filling in some facts that the tour guides were not aware of.

It is worth contacting the Federal Reserve and inquiring about the possibility of such a tour if one is planning on visiting New York City. These tours have to be arranged well in advance.

Dave Bowers adds:

For more information, see:
Museum & Gold Vault Tour (https://www.newyorkfed.org/aboutthefed/visiting.html)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW YORK CITY NUMISMATIC TOURS (https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n27a09.html)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web