1944 Gold Coin Treasury Memorandum (& other cool stuff)

I thought this memorandum was fascinating. It's from the Treasury Dept. concerning Secret Service activity in the NYC area with respect to dealers selling gold coins during the war.

The Secret Service wanted guidance on what they should do since even during the war (1944) lots of NYC dealers were selling gold coins en masse. Treasury came back with guidance which amounted to: if the buyers pay a premium, it's de facto a numismatic coin and it's exempt.

The only restriction was on $2.50 Quarter-Eagles where they limited it to 4 coins for each mint/year (apparently realizing the cheapest coin was where hoarders among the public would most likely target).

Thanks to Roger Burdette for uncovering this fascinating memo and letting me post it.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

That's an excellent find. It may or may not shed light on how things would go if a President tried something similar today. (Based on recent events, any historical precedent is at best a very weak indicator of what policy decisions a President might get away with today.)

 

Thanks. Credit to RWB.

BTW, I had uploaded Page 1 twice...it's now fixed. 2-page memo.

I think this Memo is just pertinent to the loopholes that existed after EO 6102 came into effect. The government CLEARLY played hardball in a couple of cases (I can post the actual NYT articles later if you guys want them)....right after the EO in 1933, the famous case of the guy who had $5,000 in gold with Chase Bank and got it seized.

This is different...this memo concerns sales of coins over a decade later and the SS is asking Treasury if the sale of coins is OK because of the numismatic exemption...Treasury's response is: if a premium was involved, it's ipso facto a numismatic coin and it's a legal sale.

So...if 1924 Saints were common back then too....$35 an ounce value....I buy 10 of them for $350, that's illegal as per EO 6102 (I can buy only 5 bullion coins)....but I buy it from an LCS for $40 or $45 each.....then all 10 are OK because all of them are at a premium PLUS I'm allowed the 5 bullion coin exemption (which wouldn't be needed here anyway).

There were other cases and legal briefs and some good law school analyses over the decades but they all were basically irrelevant once Pres. Ford signed the law allowing Americans to hold gold (ANY gold) effective December 31, 1974 (it was a real snoozer at the time -- I have articles on that, too).

 

Louis Eliasberg was quoted by friends and those in the busness as saying he got into numismatic gold as a way to hold gold coins above and beyond the 5-coin limit imposed by EO 6102 and the domestic selling and import restrictions ordinary Americans faced.

 

I believe you can post snippets under the fair use doctrine. Just take the most pertinent sections and feel free to post them. I suggest we play it safe (I'm not a lawyer - just extra cautious).

 

These are NY Times articles.

Like this one from 65 years ago, January 14, 1961: