France has sold its 129 tonnes of gold being held in the New York Federal Reserve and purchased an equivalent amount now held in Paris’ La Souterraine underground vault. This represents 5 per cent of its total global gold holdings which is around 2,437 tonnes.
This happened in the last half of 2025.
As the joke goes, France has saved it from the communists in New York just in time for the Russians to steal it.
France’s central bank promised this decision has nothing to do with either the new mayor or the current president. The financial world isn’t sure if it should raise an eyebrow or shrug.
The first thing to remember is that France is in big financial trouble and the one-off movement of gold drew a profit of roughly 13 billion euros.
It is also not the first time something like this has happened. France has been consolidating its gold for decades, including moving it out of the Bank of England.
‘The move was as clever as it was profitable. Unlike the ongoing saga of Germany’s massive US-based gold holdings, which remain in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s vaults, much to the consternation of many of the country’s politicians, the Bank of France did not try to raise the issue of withdrawal or transfer of their gold. Instead, they simply sold the older, less pure gold bars in New York for what they were worth in US dollars as gold prices were reaching all-time highs, then pocketed the cash and bought bars that met their updated weight and purity standards in Europe, as prices conveniently pulled back.’
This has people wondering, how much gold is New York sitting on?
Turning into a safe haven for foreign nations during and following the second world war, the vault held around 12,000 tonnes. Even at roughly half that today, 6,300-ish tonnes, it remains the largest (known) deposit. This is the same vault featured in Die Hard with a Vengeance which Jeremy Irons’ Gruber tried to raid.
And while America has the largest official monetary gold reserve (although no one really knows how much gold China is holding), Australia and Russia are considered to hold the most physical unmined gold.
Shame we’re so broke.
The reason people are freaking out about France shuffling around a small percentage of its gold harks back to 1971 and the ‘Nixon shock’ when the ability to convert gold into US dollars was put on hold. It was the end of the post-world war two monetary standard.
Following the war years, most of Europe, especially France, had been in debt and stowed large amounts of gold in the US mainly due to the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944. In 1959, Charles de Gaulle was elected President of France and hatched a secret plan to repatriate French gold. Assuming an imminent and natural end to the Bretton Woods system, and a nasty economic loss to go with it, operation Vide-Gousset was begun in 1963. By sea and by air, France started repatriating its gold.
France correctly guessed the enormous rise in valuation of gold against the US dollar and benefited from its decision. Well, if we are being completely honest, France’s actions stabbed a few knives into Bretton Woods on the way out.
France is €3.48 trillion in debt and being forced to make tough economic decisions. If you think Victoria is copping a nasty interest repayment, France is paying €1,600 every second in interest.
The reclamation of gold is a symbolic victory for France with a tidy profit. What it is not is a solution to the serious economic grievances tearing the nation apart or the war coffers screaming for aid as Russia exhausts Europe.
America won’t worry about France doing French things, but if other nations also start withdrawing their gold holdings, it might signal a loss of trust in America, it could spike gold prices, and it might weaken the US dollar.
What people are actually concerned about is that the historical trend of gold repatriation is linked to the prelude of war in the same way you close your windows when it looks like it might rain. Since 2022, a variety of European nations have started making efforts to consolidate gold. When repatriation exists with hoarding, that’s when alarm bells start ringing.
Ultimately, gold is the currency of war. That’s why people keep an eye on it.
