Outlaw Gold Hoarders

When FDR did away with the Gold Standard in 1933 all the US Citizens were susposed to turn in all the gold coinage/bullion they held. Well, we all know that didn't happen as even my grandfather ratholed a couple of Double Eagles he'd received for selling some property near Nacogdoches, Tx to the Southern Pacific Railroad. He passed them along to my dad before he died who inturn gave them to my brother and I when he was pretty near the end of his days in 1994...

Did anything similar happen in your family that your aware of?

Bone

 

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My family was too poor to own gold coins. However, the oldtimers I've spoken to relate that the gold confiscation wasn't the witch-hunt that is commony portrayed by some people today. Basically, the banks kept [confiscated] the gold they already held and asked people to exchange their gold coins for paper, but there was no attempt to track down the people who didn't. At least not around here.

 

I've heard that my great grandfather had $20 gold pieces after FDR recalled them...

I have written an article about the 1933 Gold recall....to put it short....I think it is a mystery unsloved.....

Speedy

 

A good reason to pay with cash instead of a credit card, when practical.

 

Speedy.

It would be very interesting if you could post the article or a link to it.

 

Here you go...

http://www.spencerguiley.com/mystery.htm

Speedy

 

Hey speedy, please check your pm's...thanks

 

I did....but nothing was there...am I missing something??

Speedy

 

Speedy, It's a very good article. If you haven't already done so, you may want to read "The Creature from Jekyll Island" which is a good starting point to understand the story leading up to the one you described so well. It also requires the same sort of open mind that you request from your own readers. Thanks.

 

Thanks--

I've been wanting to read it and my dad has a copy but I haven't found it yet....I hope to sometime.

I think that when anyone reads an article they should read it with an open mind....if you do you might learn something....if you don't....your not going to like it or learn anything.

Speedy

 

Spencer, DUDE, THAT'S AWESOME... GREAT JOB!

 

I once had a coworker who rat-holed an ounce of gold dust every week for decades while he was an employee of the old California Division of Mines. He paid $35/ounce in cash for gold dust which probably ran about .95 Au. Independent placer miners would come in a illegally sell him the gold dust and nuggets over the counter in the Ferry Building, San Francisco.

He must have accumulated a ton of gold, which he allegedly kept in a strong box at his house. That was obviously more than 30 years ago. I worked in mining for decades and never acquired any gold.

I have seen guys completely lose their wits when confronted with gold. "Gold fever" is very real. It makes people irrational. I'll bet some of you coin guys have "the fever".

 

quick dog - The other possibility is that some people appreciate gold and what it really represents, and others just aren't impressed and/or haven't studied it enough. It isn't prudent to dismiss something as irrational until you find the reason behind the action.

[this is only meant to stimulate thought and possibly research, not to defend anything]

 

I think gold is wonderful stuff. I suppose my problem, or lack of emotion regarding gold, stems from the fact that I searched for, and studied, mineral resources for 30 years, not counting college and recreation. I see gold as a valuable mineral commodity. My pragmatic nature caused me to focus on industrial and construction materials and minerals where the real money is. I love concrete, ceramics, and all the things we use that are made from mineral products.

Now, if someone wants to give me a huge bag of shiney gold coins in an effort to straighten me out, I would be happy to oblige them and cross over to the side of enlightenment.

Check out the beautiful rock and concrete.

 

Is that the door to Frodo's house?? Beautiful enough to belong to a Hobbit!


RickieB

 

It's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew, where the danger is double and the pleasures are few. That, and there is enough wine in there to hold-up through an "asteroid winter". :kewl:

 

i think some of the conspiracy stuff about the gold act of 1933 is unfounded. the US gold supply was streaming accross the atlantic faster then it could be produced into coins, if they did not stop it the country would have gone broke. I really do not believe that any nefarious reasons went into the gold act, just like i do not believe that FDR "let" pearl harbor happen or GW bush "Let" 9/11 happen.

kennedy on the other hand... that was fishy

 

ranchhand,

I think your interpretation of history is unfounded. Under a gold standard, gold is supposed to flow to whatever country is consuming more than it is producing. It's a self-regulating system. The country would not have "gone broke" any more than it did the dozens of other times when gold flowed out of the country temporarily. Also, there is the little issue about WHO DECICES. In a free country, people should be able to spend the gold or save the gold depending on personal preference. The belief that the government should establish policies that ensure the inflow of gold is the old mercantilist system which is thoroughly discredited. The key point that Speedy has so brilliantly related is that the gold that Roosevelt took belonged to the people, not the government. He basically just stole the gold and gave it to the banks. This is about as "nefarious" as things get. Keep in mind that in those days, the Mint coined gold coins but did not own them. The coins were the personal property of the people. So Roosevelt's action is the same as if the government came along today and took ownership of your house without your permission and gave you script money for it that they promised was just as good as owning a house. Even if it is, the action is still immoral.

 

When Richard Nixon took the United States off the $35/ounce gold-standard, mineral exploration and development boomed out West and the price of gold temporarily went to more than $800/ounce. That indicates how out of balance things were.

Urban environmentalists and urban politicians like Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer have crippled mining and timbering in the western United States. If there were no long-standing criminal conspiracy to thwart mining in California, productive gold mines would be opening all over the place with the price at nearly $500/ounce.

There is still a lot of minable gold in the Mother Lode region of California, but I doubt that it will be mined in this century due to pereceived environmental impacts. :hammer: