I just happened to run across the original draft document from the Great Depression outlawing gold and thought that others would find it interesting as well: http://fraser.stlouisfed.org/docs/meltzer/bogsub040233.pdf I wonder if the US government would ever do the same thing again. If so, it raises several questions, such as, should we only buy gold coins locally with cash or would silver, especially junk silver, be a better hedge against inflation and/or a currency collapse?
the article says that they prohibit hoarding of gold "within the continental Uinted States." Guess if you had gold, you should go at least a mile into Canada, and bury your gold. Or perhaps a lockbox at a Canadian bank At least you would technically be following the law, as it would be outside the US...
Yes, but wasn't it also the case that this executive order (6102, I think) was quickly dismissed and forgotten, due to being virtually unenforceable? Moreover, no actual arrests and/or confiscations ever took place.
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_05/watson032506.html anybody else can cite numbers for the amount of gold and gold certificatates which were turned in?
And there's no point in trying to go back to it. Here's the reason: Based on the current price of gold (around $1000/ounce) I saw an estimate that there's "only" about $1 trillion of gold that's been mined. Here's how I calculate it: Several sites show world gold production at around 50 million ounces per year. So if you say that it's been mined at that rate for the last 200 years (a high estimate), you'd get 10 billion ounces total. 10 billion x $1000 = $1 trilion. These days the $1 trillion figure is thrown around like it's nothing.