Gold bullion in Fallout 76 comes from two main sources: trading Treasury Notes at a Gold Press Machine, at 10 bullion per note for up to 400 bullion every 20 hours, and buying up to 300 more each week from Smiley at The Wayward for caps. You spend it on endgame plans from Regs, Samuel, Mortimer, Windy and the traveling merchant Minerva, and each character can hold up to 10,000. Here is how to unlock it, how the limits work as of November 2026, and what is worth buying first.
We checked this against the Fallout Wiki's Gold Bullion, Treasury Note, Gold Press Machine and vendor pages, plus Bethesda's release notes for The Backwoods and Burning Springs, in November 2026.
Unlocking Gold Bullion
Bullion is a Wastelanders currency, and the Fallout Wiki says it becomes available after you finish the Wastelanders main questline. Completing Secrets Revealed, the final quest of that story, pays out bullion directly as a reward, and it is also the point where the trading systems open up.
The conversion happens at Gold Press Machines, which exist in two places. One sits inside the Core within the Crater, and the other stands just outside the elevator to Founder's Hall in Foundation. You feed the machine Treasury Notes and it returns bullion. Treasury Notes themselves are easier to collect than they used to be: before the Steel Reign update you had to finish Secrets Revealed before events would award them, but that requirement was removed.
- Exchange rate: one Treasury Note becomes 10 gold bullion.
- Machines: the Crater's Core and Foundation, outside Founder's Hall.
- Character limit: 10,000 bullion, with anything above it deleted.
Two trophies and achievements track your early progress. Gold Rush unlocks for obtaining 300 bullion and The New Fort Knox for 1,500, both added with Wastelanders, so a few weeks of steady play will knock them out without any special effort.
Earning Treasury Notes
Public Events are the backbone of Treasury Note income. Bethesda's notes for The Backwoods, released on 3 March 2026, list three Treasury Notes as part of the standard Public Event reward, alongside 150 caps, two legendary items and three to five Legendary Modules. The Fallout Wiki's older table still shows amounts from two to eight notes depending on difficulty, with A Colossal Problem at the top, so treat three per event as the baseline and check your Pip-Boy after the bigger fights.
Daily quests add more. The wiki lists three notes each from the Raider dailies Retirement Plan and The Importance of Communication, the Settler daily Vital Equipment, and Davenport's Photo Opportunity. Those quests are short and repeatable, which makes them a reliable top-up on days with fewer events.
Notes weigh nothing, so there is no reason to cash them in early if you are already at the day's exchange limit. Bank them and exchange the next day. A small reserve of 40 or more notes also lets you fill a whole window on a day when you only have time for one quick login, which smooths out busy weeks. The Backwoods also fixed a bug where Mischief Night did not drop Treasury Notes, so seasonal events count again.
The quickest note route is simply playing the map's Public Events as they appear, since each pays notes, caps and modules together. Our caps farming guide explains how the same event loop funds your caps at the same time.
Daily and Weekly Limits
The Gold Press has a cap. According to the Fallout Wiki, you can exchange up to 40 Treasury Notes every 20 hours, which works out to 400 bullion. The clock resets with your first exchange after the previous 20-hour window ends, so if you cash in late one evening, the next window opens later the following day.
During the Gold Rush community event the daily bullion limit doubles from 400 to 800, which makes those weekends the best time to arrive with a stack of saved notes. Outside of events, the 400 figure is the ceiling for note exchanges no matter how many notes you carry.
Smiley is the second source. Found at The Wayward after you complete Secrets Revealed, he sells bullion at 1,000 caps per 50, up to 300 bullion a week, which comes to 6,000 caps for the full weekly stock. His inventory restocks every week, so buying it all each week adds 300 bullion on top of your note exchanges.
- Notes: up to 40 per 20 hours, worth 400 bullion (800 during Gold Rush).
- Smiley: up to 300 bullion per week for caps.
- Ceiling: 10,000 per character; spend before you hit it, because overflow is lost.
Who Sells What for Gold
Several vendors take bullion. The Fallout Wiki names Regs in Vault 79, Samuel in Foundation and Mortimer in the Crater's Core, while Minerva rotates between several locations on a weekly schedule. Burning Springs added Windy in Highway Town as a Gold Bullion vendor, and she now carries the snow globes that Milepost Zero's vendors used to sell.
Regs is where the most famous purchases live. He sells the T-65 power armor plans and its mods, plus the Strangler Heart plans. The Backwoods also tied two under armor styles to gold vendors: Vault Style, which gives +2 Endurance, +5 Intelligence and +3 Luck, unlocks from the Foundation vendor, and Secret Service Style, with +3 Strength, +3 Perception and +4 Endurance, unlocks from the Vault 79 vendors.
Some useful consumables also cost bullion. The wiki lists the Lunchbox at 100 bullion and Perfect Bubblegum and the Carry Weight Booster at 75 each. One rule applies to everything you buy: plans bought with bullion, and items crafted from them, cannot be traded, dropped or sold to vendors, although legendary versions can still go into a Legendary Exchange Machine for Scrip.
Bullion also turns up outside the usual loop. The wiki lists a 250-bullion bundle as a Season reward, and when Burning Springs closed Milepost Zero in December 2025, Bethesda granted 2,000 bullion to every character that had completed the caravan intro quest A Bump in the Road. One-off grants like that are rare, so do not plan around them, but check your balance after a big update in case one lands.
Minerva deserves special mention because everything she sells is 25% cheaper than the standard price. Our Minerva guide lists her rotation and recent stops so you can plan purchases around her.
What to Buy First
The right first purchase depends on your build, but the price list makes the trade-offs clear. A full set of T-65 power armor plans costs 6,900 bullion before mods, the same as Strangler Heart. The Secret Service armor plans run 1,650 for the helmet, 1,250 for the chest piece and 750 for each limb at standard prices, and the Secret Service Jet Pack armor mod costs 2,000.
For most players, the order looks like this:
- Under armor style first. Vault Style or Secret Service Style adds S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points that help almost any build, and the bonus applies under whatever armor you wear later.
- Your main armor set second. Pick T-65 or Strangler Heart if you live in power armor, or Secret Service armor if you do not. Our power armor comparison helps you decide.
- Mods and extras last. Jet packs and utility mods are expensive and only pay off once the base set is complete.
If you are still choosing a playstyle, read our builds guide for Season 26 before spending thousands of bullion on a set that may not suit you.
A Weekly Bullion Routine
A simple routine gets you close to the maximum without feeling like a chore. Each day, join Public Events as they appear and run any Raider or Settler dailies until you have 40 notes, then exchange them at the nearest Gold Press. Once a week, visit Smiley and buy his full stock of 300 if you can spare the caps.
Keep the two timers separate in your head. The note exchange runs on a rolling 20-hour window that starts with your first exchange, while Smiley restocks weekly. Playing at roughly the same time each day keeps the 20-hour window from drifting, so you never lose a day of exchanges to bad timing.
Check Minerva's location at the start of each week, since buying from her saves a quarter of the price. Keep an eye on the 10,000 ceiling, especially if you save up for a big purchase, because notes exchanged while you are at the cap simply vanish.
Done consistently, notes alone bring in up to 400 bullion a day, so a full T-65 plan set is a matter of weeks rather than months. Adding Smiley's weekly 300 shortens that further, and buying the matching plans during one of Minerva's discounted weeks trims the bill again.
Shortcuts for the Bullion Grind
Smiley's weekly stock is the one bullion source that runs on caps, so a healthy caps balance turns straight into extra gold. If you want to speed up the caps side, the store's Caps & Boosting page shows live listings for Fallout 76, and each card opens with its full details so you can see exactly what it covers.
The Fallout 76 hub lists every other service the store offers for the game.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you get gold bullion fast in Fallout 76?
Exchange 40 Treasury Notes a day at a Gold Press Machine for 400 bullion, and buy Smiley's weekly 300 for caps. Public Events and Raider or Settler dailies supply the notes.
What is the gold bullion cap?
Each character can hold 10,000 gold bullion. Anything you would receive above that is deleted and not replaced.
Where are the Gold Press Machines?
There are two: look in the Crater's Core, or head to Foundation and find the machine by the Founder's Hall lift.
How much gold does Smiley sell?
Up to 300 bullion per week at 1,000 caps per 50, for a total of 6,000 caps. He is at The Wayward after you finish Secrets Revealed.
Can you trade gold bullion plans?
No. Bullion purchases are bound to the character who bought them, so buy for the build you actually play.
Do you need to finish Wastelanders for gold bullion?
Yes. Bullion opens up after the Wastelanders main questline, ending with Secrets Revealed, although Treasury Notes can be earned from events before that.