Why new Gold is confiscateble

I was wondering how the govt. can take for instance, your gold eagles, and only pay you the face value when thats 8 times less it's true value?

Can silver eagles be confiscated as well?

Who in their right mind ever voted for this ability of our govt.?

I dont have any gold yet; just working on silver eagles. I considered gold since the mint is fixin to pop out 24 karat eagles, but if they can take it back and rip me off in the process, why bother? Im told it's reportable so they know you have it.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

The government (I believe it was under Ronald Regan's term) authorized U.S. Citizens to own gold and silver and also to hold them as part of their retirement accounts. The government allows you to own U.S. produced gold as well as gold produced by other countries (China, Canada, etc)

 

"The government authorizes..." "The government allows you to own..."

These two phrases should scare the heck out of anyone who chooses to prepare for the future by owning precious metals. If the government allows you to own them today, they can disallow you to own them tomorrow, paying you whatever, if anything, they feel like for them. Please also be aware that the freezing of safety deposit boxes is well within the government's power.

They confiscated gold before and can do it again.

I don't think silver will be confiscated because it has too many industrial uses. That could be wishful thinking on my part though.

It is reportable only if someone knows who you are when you buy it. Deal with amounts under $10,000 at a time and do not brag about it. It might be a good idea to buy gold and silver with cash and not give the dealer your name.

Just remember, when the time comes, and it will eventually come, that some nice man from the government asks you where your precious metals are, say, "oh, I sold those for less than I paid for them to some guy a few years ago. I don't know where he lives, I met him at a bar. I think his name was Bill."

Really, I am not a paranoid whackjob.

 

I always thought government was there to compliment the will of the people; not the other way around.

Being prepared has never been a wack job trait. Only the people that live in their little world that thinks life is like mayberry, is dellusional.

Amazing how people that want us to conform to them call us names because we do the right thing. Something a bully or an idiot would do to someone to try to degrade them in some way so you would somehow be dellusioned into seeing it there way.
Just punch the bully in the mouth and they will leave you alone. (no hidden meanings there folks, just one to grow on, just like those afterschool specials taught us )

 

You know for a country based supposedly on freedom and tolerance, your government is a complete control freak. (Our's is trying to be one).


Gold was never confiscated by our government, we left the gold standard twice once in 1914 and the last time in 1932. Gold coins remained legal tender (they still are) but paper money was now non-exchangable for gold. There was no demands that everyone hand in their gold though. I seriously doubt the British government even dared to demand it because they knew they'd look stupid if they did because we wouldn't hand it in, we'd just hide it.

Same with escaped rarities from the mint that were stolen or smuggled out. They are now in the hands of rich collectors, auction houses have had them too. The mint at the time wasn't bothered it was one less to melt down and therefore it saved them money, or maybe they didn't notice or really just didn't care... hence why Edward VIII coins survive today albeit in single figures. And we've never really been a big one on the idea of 'freedom' or 'liberty', we are afterall subjects of her Majesty.

 

"From My Cold Dead Hands"

 

Is foreign gold confiscatable? I was thinking maybe some gold maple leaves or aus gold. Forget china, why help the enemy?

Anyone?

 

why would the gov take the public's gold? Lack of money or what?

 

I was wondering the same why did the US Government demand that gold be handed over back in 1933/4?

 

I'll even give a clue - the reason was in the same ballpark as the reason the UK came off the gold standard in 1932.

 

But as far as i am aware we didn't have the gold confiscated. Couldn't the US Government have just axed any ties between gold and paper money and just left the gold be?

I know one reason for coming off the gold standard was because foreign governments were getting the US Government to exchange the dollars they held for gold. But then again the British government had been forced to ship over millions of gold soveeigns to pay off their war debt to the US so it went both ways. Most of which were 1917 London mint sovereign which the US government then melted down, making that coin a problem one for the collector.

Couldn't the government have done what it did in 1968 with the silver Certificates. Left the silver out there but just refused to hand it out anymore?

 

Im all for keeping the country from going belly up. However, If their would ever be a chance of it happening again, why not just not sell gold to the public?

 

GDJMSP,

I guess you are correct this this line of discussion can get heated, and I apologize in advance for any hard feelings this post may cause. But I have to warn people that your response is incorrect in my opinion, and at least encourage people to look beyond your opinion, and my opinion, and decide for themselves. The confiscation of gold did nothing to save the nation in the 1930s. It only prolonged the Great Depression. I'm afraid you are reading the version of history written by those who took the gold (i.e., central bank supporters and apologists for their economic mismanagement). What else could they say? That it was a mistake? The Depression that began in 1929 was little different from the one that began after the end of World War I. The primary difference was the government response. After World War I, the government revived the economy by cutting taxes and staying out of the way. The economic contraction was short-lived since hard money standards are self-correcting systems unlike the fiat currency system that requires regulation and active management to exist. After 1929, all sorts of government "assistance" was provided including a 25% contraction of the money supply, tariffs, bank closings, government welfare programs, and, yes, the confiscation of gold. Not surprisingly, the Depression lingered. If the gold hadn't been confiscated, a number of banks would have failed, as happened many times before, (gold) money would have flowed into the soundly managed banks, and the economy would have revived after a short but sharp contraction. This wasn't the first recession/depression/panic but turned out to be the worst because of the way it was handled. If you restrict yourself to blindly accepting history as written by the "victors" you will rarely understand what was really going on. So beware of the apologists for big government.

That said (I feel better for having tried to set the record straight and maybe saving a couple of minds out there ) there is little chance of gold being confiscated again in my opinion. For one thing, it isn't used as money and isn't used as settlement in international trade, so there is less point to it. Second, there just isn't that much of it in the hands of the public compared to the past since the vast majority of it was previously confiscated and given to the banks to bail them out. The gold was never returned to private ownership except for the relatively small number of gold eagles and commemorative coins that have been minted, and thousand of tons of it still sits in central bank vaults around the world. Even Roosevelt exempted numismatic coins from confiscation, and in the unlikely event confication happens again, the hobby will most likely be safe. So if you feel a bit paranoid, buy gold with some sort of numismatic value instead of plain bullion coins.

 

Well put Cloudsweeper, I can support every word you wrote. This is the way it was, and I can vouch for what was said, having been there and lived through it.

 

Its not even plausible for gold bullion to be confiscated. You do not have to register it, and most of it is not tracked. There is no way to tell who has gold and who does not.

 

So would buying gold maple leafs be confiscation proof since it's not american gold?

 

They can't confiscate what they don't know now can they? We have all heard it before and will hear it a million times more! "When they pry my cold dead hands from around it"!

 

Well technically any type of gold could be confiscated, any law protecting rare or unusual coins can be changed so they are not protected.

 

Gold Was Never Illegal

That's right, gold was never illegal.

Among the facts are those presented here:

http://www.coin-newbies.com/articles/gold_never_illegal.html

Of course, any government can do whatever it wants and most do.