The largest purchase of gold by the IMF was made in 1971, when the United States refused to redeem its dollars for gold under the Bretton Woods system. That year, the IMF bought 50 million ounces of gold from the United States, which amounted to about 1.5 million kilograms of gold.

Since the price of gold was fixed at $35 per ounce at that time, the IMF purchased this gold reserve for approximately $1.75 billion. This was one of the largest gold purchases in history.