Gold Confiscation of 1933

President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempted to stabilize the U.S. dollar in 1933 from the ravages of the Great Depression. He decided to confiscate U.S. gold coins from the citizens—by Executive Order—in exchange for paper U.S. currency notes. Some historians believe this was the beginning of the “shrinking U.S. Dollar”, as the government melted the majority of confiscated coins into bars and then devalued the dollar, raising gold’s value by nearly 75%.

Americans were required by the Presidential Executive Order to turn their gold coins in to a Federal Reserve Bank in exchange for currency, under the severe penalty of a $10,000 cash fine and 10 years’ potential imprisonment. There were a few exceptions to the order, including:

“Gold Coins having a recognized special value to collectors or rare and unusual coins”

Because the majority of U.S. gold coins were melted into bars, any existing “Pre-1933” era U.S. gold coins remaining today have both a “gold value” and a “scarcity” value because of high investor demand, and low supply.

Owning U.S. gold coins protects against the shrinking dollar, inflation, and the volatile financial markets worldwide