Just why do those gosh-darned silly “old-fashioned” central banks hold (real physical) gold in reserve?

Yes, central banks do lease, move, and “hold” gold in reserve, unlike any time  in the last 50 years, yet … like the FED … they tend to be quite opaque regarding their actions involving this “tradition”. Still … there is nothing in the financial world less opaque than physical possession.

And Ben is perfectly correct in his answer.

TRADITION
Origin:
1350–1400; Middle English tradicion < Old French < Latin: a handing over or down, transfer, to give over, impart, surrender, betray chiefly law, Roman law, Scots law the act of formally transferring ownership of movable property; delivery. c.1380, from O.Fr. tradicion (1292), from L. traditionem (nom. traditio) “delivery, surrender, a handing down,” from traditus, pp. of tradere “deliver, hand over,” from trans- “over” + dare “to give”. The word is a doublet of treason (q.v.). The notion in the modern sense of the word is of things “handed down” from generation to generation.

We will come to see the origin of the term return to its “traditional” use.

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