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Message:: [QUOTE="jolumoga, post: 26813237, member: 41780"]Here's a possibility as to why the Treasury did not want to prosecute New York City coin dealers. At the time, the general public was fearful of the potential consequences of holding gold. Wealthy investors also were likely wary, since potential confiscation is unappealing to conservative investors who wish to preserve and grow their wealth. One thing wealthy investors like is certainty, so by lacking a precise definition as to what constituted a numismatic coin, they were deterred from investing in such coins. So the Treasury may have calculated that such uncertainty worked in their favor to enforce the Gold Reserve Act. Let's say a precise definition were to be established via the courts. Wealthy investors might now deploy significant capital at the very margin of that definition to game the system, thus creating a moving target and effectively undermining the law. So if, say, a premium of 25 percent would constitute a numismatic coin, such investors might just be willing to pay that extra amount to accumulate vast sums of gold. The numismatic premium might thus become, in practice, a mere tax on bullion.[/QUOTE]