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If gold were judged in an impartial court of law, the jury would find the majestic metal a superior form of money.

Fiat currency advocates would lose the legal battle, and the sound money defense would rest and win the case with overwhelming documentary proof and supportive testimony.

A growing body of evidence, provided by central banks, national governments, and a global banking regulatory body, reveals an indisputable and long-known truth.

The bulleted evidence:

• The world’s central banks officially hold some 38,000 metric tons of gold, an all-time record according to one estimate, and around 20 percent of all the gold ever mined.

Central banks have been net buyers of the yellow metal for 15 consecutive years. The accumulation trend continues, with 378 tons of net purchases during the first six months of 2025.

Gold is being acquired and held by central banks because it is money, which was affirmed by American financier and investment banker J.P. Morgan more than a century ago.

“Money is gold, and nothing else,” declared the business baron and industrial titan during a 1912 congressional inquiry into Wall Street’s money trust.

Total central bank gold reserves actually could be higher, given that some nations, namely China, are believed to underreport their official holdings. Or, they could be lower—or misassigned—if Western nations sold or leased gold reserves in recent decades to subdue the metal’s price.

• Since 2012, central banks and national treasuries have repatriated between 1,200 and 1,500 tons of gold from foreign vaults, supporting the axiom “If you don’t hold it, you don’t own it.”

Nations are bringing their gold home because domestic storage is perceived as more secure than storage abroad, particularly when the metal can be sold, leased, or swapped for depreciating fiat currency.

Ongoing gold repatriations also contradict the 2011 congressional testimony of former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who told Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) that central banks hold gold as a “long-term tradition” rather than because it’s money.

Central bankers wouldn’t acquire, hoard, and repatriate tons of gold if it didn’t retain value better than unbacked legal tender. Stability is an attribute of sound, trustworthy money. For banks and individuals, gold serves as a financial backstop and fallback when fiat currencies fail.

• Gold is considered the highest quality asset (i.e., “Tier 1”) and equivalent to cash when hedged and held in a bank vault, in accordance with the Basel III accord. In short, gold remains money, even though it hasn’t been used as an international currency or in regular global trade since it was demonetized in the early 1970s.

The accord is a regulatory agreement and framework developed by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), which oversees global banking standards. It was designed to restore bank stability and accountability after the 2008 financial crisis. The BCBS is affiliated with the Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS), known as the central bank of central banks.

• Gold allows governments to create cash, reduce debt, and avoid default. Financial authorities periodically revalue the metal’s official price to provide liquidity and prevent insolvency.

On Aug. 1, a Federal Reserve economist published a study of five countries—Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Curacao and Saint Martin, and South Africa—that revalued their gold over the last 30 years to retire debts and improve their fiscal balance sheets.

“With public debt at high levels, some governments have begun to explore financing additional expenditures without raising taxes while also not increasing public debt outstanding,” reads the introduction to “Official Reserve Revaluations: The International Experience.” “One possibility is using proceeds from valuation gains on gold reserves, as has been floated in the U.S. and Belgium recently.”

The central bank wouldn’t authorize such a study unless gold revaluation was a viable option for consideration. Gold revaluations confirm that gold is money whose official price has been restricted below its true value by government mandate.

• With its recent price rise to $3,400 an ounce, gold is the second-largest reserve asset held by central banks after the U.S. dollar. Combined with strong gold demand, the development indicates depreciating dollars, euros, and other fiat currencies are being exchanged for appreciating gold. A wise decision given that gold has a natural and inverse correlation with devalued digital and paper currencies.

The verdict: Gold is money, and the evidence proves it is sound and superior money.

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