A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from June 02, 2015
Fort Knox of Silver (West Point Mint nickname)

The West Point Bullion Depository began in 1937 near the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. It became the West Point Mint in 1988. The depository served as a storage facility for silver bullion, and it was dubbed the “Fort Knox of silver.”
 
“AT WEST POINT, N.Y.—the Fort Knox of silver” was cited in 1965 newspaper article. “The depository is primarily used to store the nation’s major silver reserves. It’s sort of the ‘Fort Knox of silver’” was cited in a 1975 newspaper article.
 
   
Wikipedia: West Point Mint
The West Point Mint Facility was erected in 1937 near the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, United States. Originally it was called the West Point Bullion Depository. At one point it had the highest concentration of silver of any U.S. mint facility, and for 35 years produced circulating pennies. It has since minted mostly commemorative coins, and stores gold.
 
It gained official status as a branch of the United States Mint on March 31, 1988. Later that year it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
(...)
History
As of 1937, it served as a storage facility for silver bullion and was thus nicknamed “The Fort Knox of Silver.” Even without United States Mint status, it produced U.S. coinage. From 1974 through 1986, the West Point Mint produced Lincoln cents bearing no mint mark, making them indistinguishable from those produced at the Philadelphia Mint. The years 1977 to 1979 saw Bicentennial quarters and Washington quarters produced as well. Approximately 20 billion dollars’ worth of gold was stored in its vaults in the early 1980s (although this was still significantly less than at Fort Knox).
     
Google News Archive
14 April 1965, St. Petersburg (FL) Times, “Silver Shortage May Mean New Look For U.S. Coins” (Washington Post), pg. 6-B, col. 7:
AT WEST POINT, N.Y.—the Fort Knox of silver—the U.S. supply of the metal has dwindled from 1.5 billion ounces in 1964 to less than 1.2 billion ounces now.
 
Google News Archive
7 January 1975, Lodi (CA) News-Sentinel, “U.S. utilizes a fourth ‘mint’” by Gary L. Palmer (Copley News Service), pg. 12, col. 5:
Since August the government, to help alleviate the shortage of cents in circulation, has been striking the lowly penny at the depository near West Point, N.Y.
 
The depository is primarily used to store the nation’s major silver reserves. It’s sort of the “Fort Knox of silver.”
   
Google Books
The Wall Street Journal Complete Money and Investing Guidebook
By Dave Kansas
New York, NY: Three Rivers Press
2005
Pg. ?:
Much of the U.S. silver reserves is stored at West Point, earning it the nickname “the Fort Knox of silver.” Like the Fort Knox facility, it was established in 1937. It became an official Mint facility in 1988. And as at its better-known cousin, no visitors are permitted.
 
Google Books
Where?
By Erin McHugh
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
2005
Pg. 109:
But since 1939 there’s been a little-known silver depository as well — in West Point, New York. “Fort Knox of Silver,” as it’s nicknamed, is actually the West Point Bullion Depository. It presently houses both silver and gold, and it is even used occasionally as a mint. In the 1970s, a severe shortage of pennies (if one can even imagine such a thing) moved the government to produce “mintmarkless” one-cent coins at West Point, and over the years the depository has also manufactured gold and silver commemorative coins, and American Eagle Bullion coins in proof and uncirculated condition.
 
KING 5 (Seattle, WA)
The Little-Known Story of the “Fort Knox of Silver”
Special Advertising Content 5:47 p.m. PDT June 1, 2015
(...)
In 1938, the West Point Bullion Depository was built by the U.S. government to store a large silver reserve. Originally, the depository exclusively stored silver bullion bars, which is how it got nicknamed the “Fort Knox of silver.” Eventually, the West Point Bullion Depository expanded to house more than silver bullion bars.
 
In 1970, three million Carson City silver dollars were discovered in a U.S. Treasury vault in New York City. These silver dollars were transported to the West Point Bullion Depository, and became the first bullion not in bar form to be stored there. Three years later, despite it not being an official mint facility, the West Point depository began producing one-cent coins. For thirteen years, one-cent coins without mintmarks were issued from the West Point Bullion Depository.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityBanking/Finance/Insurance • Tuesday, June 02, 2015 • Permalink


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