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What 40 Years Of Gold Confiscation By The US Government Looks Like
The chart below, which is a time series showing the total "Gold Held by the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve" (which for all intents and purposes are interchangeable), demonstrates vividly the moment when the US government enacted Executive Order 6102, aka the "forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates within the continental United States" order which criminalized the possession of monetary gold "by any individual, partnership, association or corporation." But not the government of course. Spot the moment after which gold confiscation by the US government (also known as USD devaluation) from its citizens was legalized.
The actual April 5, 1933 order, which in the coming years will make a repeat appearance with absolute certainty, is below.
What was the point of Executive Order 6102? It was two fold.
- First, in order to make the confiscation legitimate, the US government required the delivery of all gold coin, bullion, and certificates to be concluded by May 1, 1933 in exchange for $20.67/ounce. Several months later, the new, official gold exchange price (which however was merely the government's bid as nobody could actually buy gold at this price) became $35.00, which remained until 1971 when the last trace of the dollar's pseudo convertibility into gold was wiped out by Nixon. In effect, what FDR did was to devalue the USD by 70% overnight.
- Second, not only did the government remove the incentive for ordinary citizens to hold gold by establishing price and criminal controls over possession, it also changed the rules in the middle of the game allowing it to build up a massive gold hoard of over 8000 tons today which is maintained at Fort Knox, and is, to the best of our knowledge, unauditable by any mere mortal. Critically, it made the US government the sole source and monopoly agent of gold purchases, using reserve fiat currency it could print with impunity, beginning in 1933 and continuing through 1974 when the limitation on gold ownership was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill legalizing private ownership of gold coins, bars and certificates by an act of Congress codified in Pub.L. 93-373, which went into effect December 31, 1974. In summary, the US government, which is now the largest official holder of physical gold in the world, had 40 years of uncontested zero cost gold accumulation in which it could build a gold inventory that was second to none.
As for the process the government had in place to deal with those who refused to voluntarily hand over their gold quietly, curiously there was only one case of prosecution, which however should make it very clear that holding gold in "authorized" bank safes is about the dumbest thing one can do the next time the US government decides to devalue the dollar, and change the rules.
The circumstances of the case were that a New York attorney, Frederick Barber Campbell, had on deposit at Chase National over 5,000 troy ounces (160 kg) of gold. When Campbell attempted to withdraw the gold Chase refused and Campbell sued Chase. A federal prosecutor then indicted Campbell on the following day (September 27, 1933) for failing to surrender his gold. Ultimately, the prosecution of Campbell failed, but the authority of the federal government to seize gold was upheld, and Campbell's gold was confiscated.
The fact that the custodial bank of the 5000 ounces of gold is the bank that would subsequently become JPMorgan is not lost on us.
Finally, to those who have some gold ETF certificates in a brokerage account, which by law are the possession by DTCC's Cede & Co. - a bank owned institution - we wish the best of luck to anyone hoping to preserve of even recover any of the invested wealth in such instruments.
And remember: when in doubt, recall Bernanke's immortal words: "gold is not money."
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It can always be crafted into jewelery. They didn't confiscate that.
Let them pass any law they want. Does anyone really listen to it? I guess only the sheeples.
I'm really surprised the first comment wasn't "Gold bitchez!"
"Nothing shall infringe upon a citizen's right to bear arms made with gold in the circuitry of the guidance system !".... Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad Constitutional Convention Tour
ROFL says
"And besides, have you seen the price of silver and gold lately? Imagine how valuable the US dollar would be if pegged to these skyrocketing commodities!"
don't see why this got so many negative responses
Americans need an independent multi-party audit with unrestricted media coverage. All else is noise.
I have proposal for Tyler's.Election time is aprroaching.Aparently,a lot of idiots will flood this blog,as Restoreourfuture advertising for romni-soetero .Can you develop ignor feature,if i dont want to read someones comments,to put him on ignor,so i cannot see his comments?
We have sadly not lived up to the wisdom of the second ammendment .... the "Weapons Gap" between the government and we the people must be closed ! Close the "Weapons Gap" .... end government arrogance !
The trolls are becomming so obvious it only makes them look like morons... vote for change, wasn't that Obama's chant? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Restoreourfuture is a complete idiot if he believes Obamny will change anything... they tell you whatever you want to hear in order to get elected and the tune changes depending the the audience. Restoreourfuture should change his moniker to "DeepthroatGullible."
Does anyone ever wonder why you can't find newspaper accounts or stories of the mobs that protested this confiscation act at the time? They aren't there. Anyone wonder why you never learn about the hundreds of citizens who were prosecuted for failing to comply with the law, and the horrible penalties they faced? Cause they didn't happen.
Don't get me wrong. The order was real. But since most people held money in the banks, and since most money of the day was held by businesses in banking accounts at the banks, all the government really needed to have happen was for the banks to comply, and transfer their bullion amounts in for cash equivalents at their leisure. This effectively "confiscated" or replaced over 90% of all of the bullion cash in the country with paper.
The last thing the gov wanted then was a rioting, pissed off population, or businesses screaming that they'd been shut down. Everything for the vast majority of the country's citizens proceeded as normal. Could still deposit and withdraw from the bank, just it was *always* done in paper from that point forward.
The coins in private hands at the time of the order represented such a small fraction of the total coins in circulation, that the cost of forcibly confiscating them (a seriously pissed off population) wasn't worth it, and the government never did much at all in terms of cracking down on individuals.
Moral of the story: Dillinger robbed banks because "that's where the money is", the government confiscated coins almost solely from the banks, because "that's where the coins were". Individual citizens today by and large don't possess bullion: the ETFs do.
Sell GLD and buy Miners ... Confiscation GLD / Miners down ... Gold Standard (Confiscation) GLD down / Miners up
until they tax the miners or nationalize the mines. neither of which i think will happen, just saying
Sell GLD before the gov't confiscates it and gives you $42.22/oz for your holdings when you paid the ,nonimal, amount of around $1600. Now that is devaluaton. Don't say you weren't warned. I have been pointing out, for many months now, that the ETF GLD is just a ruse to concentrate all the gold in one place to ease confiscation. Get it? Dump your GLD shares. All the MSM reporting soros and Paulson are buying more shares is a lie. They are shorting GLD and will make a fortune when the Gov' starts the confiscations.
Do you have a date on that, I would love to know
Here is what I have:
Status Report of U.S. Treasury-Owned Gold Overview
The Status Report of U.S. Treasury-Owned Gold (Gold Report):
http://fms.treas.gov/_images/bullet.gif);">- Reflects gold bullion and gold coins owned by the federal government
- Summarizes the fine troy ounces and the book value of gold held by various facilities
- Identifies the value of gold coins and bullion on display at Federal Reserve banks; coins and bullion in reserve at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; and gold held by U.S. Mint facilities
The book value of gold is currently $42.2222 per troy ounce. The information used to compile this reporting is received from the U.S. Mint, Federal Reserve banks, and FMS.
Current Report: July 31, 2012
Contacts:If you have questions about this report, please call (202) 874-9866.
http://fms.treas.gov/gold/index.html
Here is the current gold reserve:
http://fms.treas.gov/gold/current.html
My theory on confiscation is just that; a theory.
FDR did it in 1933 and it will be an eccential component of devaluing USD.
F.D.R.----Dime
Lincoln---Penny
So who was worse? I'd say the antebellum one.
Absolutely. Why didn't the US simply follow Britain's lead and pay the slave holders for their "property?" Yes yes we can all agree it was an immoral institution, but by the laws and traditions of the time it was not illegal. It certainly would have been far cheaper to end the vile instituion by payment (as the Constitution clearly required for a "takings") than by killing 600,000 men. How many artists, inventors, and thinkers were subsequently lost in that dead chain of humanity? What an absolute waste.
If I take 40 1oz gold american eagles, drill a hole on each of them, tie them up with a thin nylon thread and hang them on my neck, can I claim that I have a nice necklace - a non-confiscatable piece of jewelry or a fine work of art?
Yes. That is why the whole thing is a joke.
Probably if they don't bust you for defacing legal tender. The older I get the more I wonder just what the word 'legal' means.
I am close to the grave and am not very interested in presreving wealth, but younger people should look into safe deposit boxes in other countries like canada for PM storage especially if you have relatives in those countries that you can trust. Might be a big "if". Owning some rural property in the far North and hiding assets in an underground vault could bypass lying thieving politicians.
This the final word on Rand
http://anti-state.com/forum/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=13875
Wow, the final word? That's a ipretty big claim, which requires equally big evidence. Too bad when one follows the link provided one gets treated to a stream of unsupported (LSD-induced?) rantings. It's just gratuitous unsupported assertions treated as indisputable fact. AR may indeed be the mistress of a Rothschild, but this link is not even close to supporting that claim.
They are confiscating the wealth of the people now, through inflation that is statistically under-reported. This transfers the preponderance of wealth to the upper classes who then can afford to exchange into more commodity assets, such as art, land, petrol, bullion.
When the Great Reset happens those who are in control now, will be in even greater control in the new system.
Those who do not hedge for that possibility are fools and condemning their progeny to economic serfdom.
I don't have any research to back me up, but here is what I think:
There was only one prosecution, and it failed. Doesn't sound like they actively tried to take gold. The guy they went after stood out like a sore thumb.
I suspect most Americans by 1933 didn't have giant bags of gold coins sitting around. They were most likely financially the same as most Americans today, living from paycheck to paycheck. This was most likely puzzling to them, and meaningless in their daily life. My father and mother lived during the depression, neither ever brought up gold, father was from a very poor large family, mother was from a wealthy small family. If it was a big issue, they would have brought it up.
It looks like the main purpose was to pull gold out of circulation in order to devalue the "dollar".
It was part of the FedRes long term plan to divorce FRNs from any backing at all.
Those that wanted to purchase gold, could. Mexico kept minting gold coins with old dates for decades after, so you could buy them as "collector" coins.
This is not to excuse the illegal and unconstitutional diktat, but if they actively tried to pursue this issue of confiscation by force, it would have risen to the Supreme Court and been found unconstitutional IMHO.
Anybody got any horror stories from 1933 about the Feds busting in to seize gold? I doubt it.
Anyway, they will be draggin' the lake if they want my PMs, I gotta be the world's worst sailor for how many times my rowboat capsized while transporting my collection.
They used the bank holiday (in part) to rifle safe deposit boxes for gold stored there. Given the no. of boxes and the no. of Treasury agents, this could not be 100% coverage. So this guy apparently slipped through the cracks, or more deviously, was left w/his stash to make an example of him when he ultimately came for his property.
Compliance in any case was not total. I have not seen detailed estimates, but we can sketch compliance rates by knowing the amount of circulating gold coins (leaves out numismatic relics) prior to March 1933 when the order was issued, and the amount turned in. My guess is 60 to 80% was turned in, leaving a large hole of non-compliance. I would not be surprised to see this gap even wider or possibly narrower, but the important point is, no matter the actual percentages, Americans in that day (of generalized respect for law and govt) still did not fully comply despite draconian penalties. Imgaine the compliance rates today when respect for law and govt is almost non-existent.
For more info. read this from Jim Powell: http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd0906e.asp
All that gold is the perfect stash to back the new, legitimate treasury note after the MASS ARRESTS go down... http://tinyurl.com/cd5cyjo/
FDR confiscated the citizens' gold under the questionable authority of The Trading w/the Enemies Act, a holdover from WW-I. He did so in spite of an opinion from his Attorney General that it was unconstitutional and in spite of opposition from members of his own party, such as Sen Gore (D-OK).
Article I, Section 10 (requiring that only gold and silver can be used in payment of all debts) has never been amended. It has only been ignored. As the old saying goes, however, ignorance of the (supreme) law is no excuse.
For some reason, even though it is 2012, all this talk of Presidential tyranny via Executive Order sounds vaguely familiar. . .
“This Constitution” is established between the nine States which ratify that Constitution on June 21, 1788. On that date, when New Hampshire ratifies the Constitution of September 17, 1787, the Constitution of the United States is legally recognized by the nine States of Article IX of the Articles of Confederation of November 15, 1777. On April 30, 1789, George Washington takes this oath: “I, George Washington, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” “So help me God,” and the Constitution of the United States is adopted by the most prominent member of American society and President of the United States of America.
George Washington’s adoption of the Constitution of the United States leaves the Constitution of September 17, 1787, “this Constitution,” un-adopted by any oath or affirmation. George Washington and his successors hold the Article II Section 1 Clause 1 executive power as Presidents of the United States of America, however, that power is limited to the United States, the territory owned by or subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States of America.
Presidential Executive Orders may appear to extend beyond the federal territory owned by or subject to the jurisdiction, however, upon close examination, the language of every Presidential Executive Order will clearly apply only to the administration of the territory owned by or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States of America.
http://www.edrivera.com/
**END**
On May 23, 1933, Congressman, Louis T. McFadden, brought formal charges against the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Bank system, The Comptroller of the Currency and the Secretary of United States Treasury for numerous criminal acts, including but not limited to, CONSPIRACY, FRAUD, UNLAWFUL CONVERSION, AND TREASON.
The petition for Articles of Impeachment was thereafter referred to the Judiciary Committee and has
YET TO BE ACTED ON.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/mcfadden.html
I wonder if this time a lot of people will take the Charleton Heston "pry it from by cold, dead hand" position when it comes to their gold?
GOLD MONTHLY CHART IS VERY OVEREXTENDED.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-24/market-analysis
not even close - http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=gld&p=W&yr=3&mn=2&dy=0&id=p99251767410 or short URL http://scharts.co/PdWQRZ
and projected 2005-2012 trend - http://flic.kr/p/bNoznc
In the next 12 months gold will make significant gains in % or $ terms but even so that will not begin to reflect the mirrored rise from mid-2007 to mid-2008. Once that is duplicated the next rise in gold could easily fly up from 2000/oz at the low to 3400. It may not stick but a peak could be hit short-term there.
Things are about to get really interesting.
For those holding no gold, I applaud you for your lousy boating skillz, bitchez.
"Finally, to those who have some gold ETF certificates in a brokerage account, which by law are the possession by DTCC's Cede & Co. - a bank owned institution - we wish the best of luck to anyone hoping to preserve of even recover any of the invested wealth in such instruments"
Indeed this is riskier than keeping gold bars. For those seeking a near-term cash return, however, instead of bartering gold for goods with those bars or passing them to their children in secret, another avenue exists and an additional helping hand in Canada. With greater reward comes greater risk, counter-party risk.
So far agq 2x and hzu 2x have worked in good correlation with silver spot & quoted spot has moved in a correlated manner (except 2009's dip) with after-premium acquisition of silver.
Silver itself acts roughly like a 2x ETF on gold making hzu (tsx) and agq (nyse) act somewhat like a 4x long fund for gold spot.
In Canada there's the added benefit that no gains are taxed in a TFSA brokerage account. This means the only losses are trading losses and fees. There's a fee/premium for bars and so there is for trades as well.
Compare the total spread difference on those bars vs those of the shares, if you get enough of them. Maybe GLD, maybe UGL, maybe HZU, maybe AGQ. If there's a discount in near-term paper by choosing it over gold & silver bars, you know you have a choice.
You can trade later for paper & get bars with the tax-free returns (or taxed but profitable returns outside TFSA accounts), or you can hold gold now knowing that later some insolvent institutions won't give you anything, maybe your brokerage.
So far in Canada nothing of this nature has happened. No one should ignorantly walk into markets, however, forgetting that there is rampant manipulation & that MFGlobal & PFGBest indicate a rapid & very harsh change - all yo money be gone.
Choose carefully. Some paper bets will pay off & will be turned to exceedingly more tangibles due to leveraged multipliers even without margin. UGL, HZU, AGQ do not require margin to trade gold & silver's price action.
MFGlobal customers definitely got MF'd and the COMEX is a part of it - http://i41.tinypic.com/i3tk44.png
Before the event, $20.67 = 1 oz gold.
After the event, $20.67 = 0.59 oz gold.
Therefore, the devaluation of the $ in gold terms = 41 % NOT 70 %.
Is that clear?