Have Central Banks Lost Control of the Gold Market?

A brief history of Central Bank control of gold

When Eurodollars appeared in Europe, European central banks were not happy and sold them for U.S. gold. Then President Nixon, in his infinite wisdom closed the ‘gold window’ [After Europe had boosted their reserves after sending around 12,000 tonnes of gold across the Atlantic into European vaults]. In a mutually beneficial but clandestine accord, the world then saw the U.S. dollar rise to be the sole global reserve currency. It has continued to reign supreme because it is the only currency that is used to buy oil, oil that we all need.

Control lost

After 1971, gold began to rise in earnest as every man and his dog bought some, taking the gold price from $42.35 to $850. This was a public statement that the global investing public did not accept paper currencies with no gold to back them. These had become simply government obligations with no settlement date.
Central banks had to act to ensure the public accepted these currencies and were moved away from gold as money. To do that, the U.S. and by extension the I.M.F. decided on limited [limited because central banks still wanted it in their vaults as an important reserve asset] gold sales through auctions. All the gold sold there was snapped up. The reality of central banks wanting to keep gold then kicked in and the auctions were halted. (more)