Reply #78: The Government can claim anything it wants, whenever it wants.

[happyslug]

Be it Gold, Land, Drugs etc. The Government can ban you owning any one item (or many items).

It was this legal concept that Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) used to end private Gold Ownership in the US. FDR asked Congress for the power to confiscate Gold, the Power was given to him and FDR exercised that Power. Congress can do that to anything, silver, copper, your car etc. ANYTHING.

Please note FDR confiscated Gold was that prior to the Great Depression Gold roughly equaled $20 an ounce. Gold Coins were minted based on that price level (The $20 Gold Double Eagle was just under One ounce of Gold). When FDR confiscated Gold, he demanded people turn in the Gold Coins (Most of which were held by banks). Once the Gold Coins were back in the Possession of the US Government he raised the official Exchange rate from $20 to a ounce of Gold to $35 to an ounce of Gold (Where it remained till Nixon lifted the Exchange rate between Gold and the Dollar in 1971).

Please note The $35.00 an ounce price was a domestic price, it held even when the WORLD price of Gold dropped back down to $20 an ounce.

What a lot of people get confused was that at the Time FDR "confiscated gold" most of the actual gold was already in the hands of the US Government, what people had were "Gold Certificates" i.e. paper money printed by the Government with a promise to redeem the Gold Certificate for its value in Gold Coin. What Congress did was state that the promise to pay in Gold actually meant the Treasury will pay you the face value of the Certificate, but that payment did not have to be in Gold (No matter what the Certificate said). It is THIS fact, changing a promise to pay in gold to one to pay in Dollars that gold bugs point out was a "Confiscation". No one really lost money, just their right to redeem Gold Certificates for Gold Coin.

For more on Gold Certificates see:
http://www.glenpub.com/index.htm
http://www.usrarecurrency.com/GoldCertificatesInformationPage.htm




Here is FDR's Executive Order on Confiscation of Gold:
http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold-confiscation.html