Ex Nafragiis Venit Aurum
Jr. Member
- Nov 24, 2020
- 30
- 11
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
For those that don't know - the RMS Edinburgh was sank in 1942 by the Germans. 60 British lives were lost, and also 465 bars of Russian gold. Reports on the weight of each bar have differed, some indicating 7 pounds, some say 13 pounds, but most sources agree that each bar was 23 pounds. That's 368 ounces of gold per bar, and 171,120 ounces of gold in total.
The Historical price of GOLD and the MATH behind it says:
Now in 1942, historical records indicate that from 1940 to 1944 the price of gold was artificially held in place at $33.85 an ounce. That's $541.60 a pound. That would make 465 bars at 23 pounds a bar worth $5,792,412 according to the price of gold at that time. (that would be £1,437,323.08) (this is -£62,676.92 less than what historical records indicate the 465 bars were supposed to be valued at as a war payment from Russia to the US)
In 1981 the price of gold was recorded as $460 an ounce, down from 1980's global inflation of $615 an ounce. At $460 an ounce that would be $7,360 a pound. It was in this year that the consortium of salvage teams who had been awarded salvage rights by the British and Russians managed to salvage 431 of the gold bars from the RMS Edinburgh.
At 23 pounds a bar, that puts the price per bar in 1981 at $169,280. The full cache of 431 gold bars would have cost around $72,959,680 USD in 1981. [Modern price in 2024 is $2,748 an ounce, $43,968 a pound, $1,011,264 a bar, $435,854,784 total)
Extra (not important)
In 1986 the price of gold per ounce was $338, or $5,408 a pound. During the 2nd salvage of the RMS Edinburgh in 1986, they recovered 29 more bars, with 5 mysteriously vanished. At 1986 rates, that would have been $124,384 per bar, for a total of $3,607,136 recovered. ($621,920 "lost") [$29,326,656 recovered, $5,056,320 lost in modern figures]
HISTORICAL records say:
According to MULTIPLE sources - the total value of the 465 bars of gold in 1942 was only £1,500,000 (British pounds.) As mentioned above this figure doesn't accurately make sense if the price of gold per ounce was truly $33.85 and each gold bar truly weighed 23 pounds. But wait - it gets worse (headache incoming)
Now during WW2 - the British pound was pegged to the USD by a rate of £1 = $4.03, meaning the total recorded value of these 465 gold bars was $6,045,000 (converted from £1.5M) - making the value of each bar $13,000, the value of each pound $565.21 and the value of each ounce, $35.32. That's a difference from the recorded historical cost of gold in 1942 of +$1.47 an ounce, +$23.52 a pound, +$540.96 a bar and +$251,546.40 for the entire cache of gold bars in 1942. So according to that math - The historically recorded price: $6,034,000 and the value according to the gold market value in 1942: $5,793,453.60, or £1,437,581.54 ('m not even sure how I have a different number here than above haha)
In 1981 the British pound was equal to $1.26. Official reports indicate that the 431 gold bars recovered were valued at £45,000,000. In USD that's $56,7000,000 using the exchange rates of 1981. That's a difference of -$16,259,680.
So what am I missing? How can we account for the differences in what the math indicates and what historical records are telling us?
The Historical price of GOLD and the MATH behind it says:
Now in 1942, historical records indicate that from 1940 to 1944 the price of gold was artificially held in place at $33.85 an ounce. That's $541.60 a pound. That would make 465 bars at 23 pounds a bar worth $5,792,412 according to the price of gold at that time. (that would be £1,437,323.08) (this is -£62,676.92 less than what historical records indicate the 465 bars were supposed to be valued at as a war payment from Russia to the US)
In 1981 the price of gold was recorded as $460 an ounce, down from 1980's global inflation of $615 an ounce. At $460 an ounce that would be $7,360 a pound. It was in this year that the consortium of salvage teams who had been awarded salvage rights by the British and Russians managed to salvage 431 of the gold bars from the RMS Edinburgh.
At 23 pounds a bar, that puts the price per bar in 1981 at $169,280. The full cache of 431 gold bars would have cost around $72,959,680 USD in 1981. [Modern price in 2024 is $2,748 an ounce, $43,968 a pound, $1,011,264 a bar, $435,854,784 total)
Extra (not important)
In 1986 the price of gold per ounce was $338, or $5,408 a pound. During the 2nd salvage of the RMS Edinburgh in 1986, they recovered 29 more bars, with 5 mysteriously vanished. At 1986 rates, that would have been $124,384 per bar, for a total of $3,607,136 recovered. ($621,920 "lost") [$29,326,656 recovered, $5,056,320 lost in modern figures]
HISTORICAL records say:
According to MULTIPLE sources - the total value of the 465 bars of gold in 1942 was only £1,500,000 (British pounds.) As mentioned above this figure doesn't accurately make sense if the price of gold per ounce was truly $33.85 and each gold bar truly weighed 23 pounds. But wait - it gets worse (headache incoming)
Now during WW2 - the British pound was pegged to the USD by a rate of £1 = $4.03, meaning the total recorded value of these 465 gold bars was $6,045,000 (converted from £1.5M) - making the value of each bar $13,000, the value of each pound $565.21 and the value of each ounce, $35.32. That's a difference from the recorded historical cost of gold in 1942 of +$1.47 an ounce, +$23.52 a pound, +$540.96 a bar and +$251,546.40 for the entire cache of gold bars in 1942. So according to that math - The historically recorded price: $6,034,000 and the value according to the gold market value in 1942: $5,793,453.60, or £1,437,581.54 ('m not even sure how I have a different number here than above haha)
In 1981 the British pound was equal to $1.26. Official reports indicate that the 431 gold bars recovered were valued at £45,000,000. In USD that's $56,7000,000 using the exchange rates of 1981. That's a difference of -$16,259,680.
So what am I missing? How can we account for the differences in what the math indicates and what historical records are telling us?
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