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Message:: [QUOTE="KLJ, post: 172975, member: 1910"]As I understand it, Roosevelt didn't RECALL gold, per se, he just made it illegal to own (as others have noted here already, the constitutionality of that is iffy).  And, except for wedding rings, collectable coins, etc, this ban was supposedly broad.  That being said, if you could prove that a double eagle that you owned was collectable, you could keep it.  So any that had legally entered circulation (as all dates and mintmarks had up to 1933), they were legal for ownership (both here and abroad).  That means that when gold ownership was "legalized" in 1974, the gold coins overseas could come back (I have a friend who flew for the Air Force, and he said he used to buy double eagles for just over melt in Germany for a long time.  Apparently, German banks had hordes of them).  Or the ones in hiding in America could come out.  It opened up a market that had been held down. I say all of that because you are correct that the Mint argues that no 1933 double eagles ever got out legally.  I believe there was only a window of a few days between the start of minting and Roosevelt's gold ban.  In my argument (I'm in favor of Switt's heirs), that's enough time for "reasonable doubt." On a sadder note, however, it was reported at the last meeting of the coin club of which I'm a member, that something like 35% of the gold coins ever minted by the United States were melted in the mass seizure of the early/mid 1930s.[/QUOTE]