America's Greatest Gold Heist

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was one of several ruthless U. S. presidents who has been grossly overated by numerous historisns. If his ratings had been based on the quantity of his actions, they could be considered correct, but based on the devastating harm that he did to our nation much of the time, they were very, very wrong. In fact, if we wanted to rank our presidents correctly, with rare exceptions, the best ones were the ones who did the least—who refused to tamper with our constitution and wanted to leave people alone. That is a quality that very few people in any government are willing to stand up and support (example: Calvin Coolidge—one of our all-time greatest presidents).

In the1932 election, shortly after the crash of 1929, lying, conniving FDR won handily with his promises of a 25% reduction in federal spending (a huge lie, of course) combined with pie in the sky, mostly unconstitutional “New Deal” schemes that he claimed would kick start America’s economy into prosperity.

He also made another big promise to preserve America’s gold standard. Back then, anybody could walk into a bank and cash in a paper $20 bill and walk out with a bright gold double eagle containing .967 oz of pure gold. With the dollar thus fixed, politicians and shysters could not tamper with the value of our money.

According to official records, our gold reserves in 1933 were 4 billion dollars. At $20.67 per troy ounce, that equated to about 6,000 metric tons—193 million troy ounces. The total face value of US Treasury Gold Certificates issued from 1905 to 1928 totaled to more than another 16,000 metric tons (515 million troy ounces). At that time, the American dollar was by far the strongest currency in the world.

But inside, FDR hated the gold standard. He became very paranoid about private citizens hoarding gold, in spite of very little evidence of many people actually doing it. And with the gold-based dollar, along with federal taxes still at low levels, he could not ramp up enough money to finance his grandiose pipe dreams.

On March 6, 1933, barely two days after his inaugeration, FDR kicked off his dastardly plan with a four-day national banking shutdown “until Congress could act.” On March 8, just two days later, he publicly claimed the gold standard would be safe. Why not? America’s gold reserves were the largest in the world.

But on March 11, after just three more days, he decreed another executive order that prevented banks from making payments in gold—another big lie.

Then on April 5, less than a month later, he signed his infamous Executive Order 6102 “forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States” that “forbade the hoarding ‘of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency’, under penalty of $10,000 fines or ten years’ imprisonment or both.” This prohibition remained in place until 1974, when President Gerald Ford finally signed a bill to repeal it.

All people within the U. S., both Americans and foreigners, were paid $20.67 per troy ounce for their gold with paper “Federal Reserve Notes” that were backed with nothing.

By May 10, the government had seized $300 million in gold coins and $470 million in gold certificates, equivalent to $770 million dollars (37 million troy ounces). At today's prices, (April 19, 2024, @ $2,397.60/oz), that equals 88.71 BILLION DOLLARS.

On June 5, 1933, FDR took the United States off of the gold standard. Then he finished his grand scheme with his 1934 Gold Reserve Act, which revalued gold from $20.67 to $35 per ounce, effectively seizing 40% of everybody's savings and bank accounts—an unconscionable act of theft by FDR and the federal government.

He did it with almost no resistance from Congress, who should have been vigilant and taken immediate action to halt this devastation and impeach our great traitor.

FDR even asked a fellow, blind, Democratic, Oklahoma Senator, Thomas Gore, for his opinion. He quickly replied, “Why that’s just plain stealing, isn’t it, Mr. President?”

Now with his huge windfall, instead of his promised 25 percent reduction in federal spending, FDR was set to double federal spending during his first term, which he did—Another big lie.

And of course, with the gold tether completely severed, the Federal Reserve Bank could print and inflate all of the money it pleased without any restrictions. FDR’s reckless authoritarian spending follies, combined with massive tax increases and abusive official actions, continued for another eleven years—until 1945—when he finally died.

Today, America is far more vulnerable than it was in 1933. Even though our dollar is still holding on as the world’s primary reserve currency, it is now “on the ropes.” We ostensibly have about 8,200 metric tons of gold at Fort Knox and another 5000 in the basement of the New York Federal Reserve building, but we don’t really know it is still there. However, we do know that Russia, China, India, and a few others are currently hoarding massive amounts of gold. Can anyone even imagine what might happen if they suceeded in capsizing our reserve currency status?

Executive Order 6102 also deep sixed the famous 1933 St Gaudens Double Eagle. The order halted all gold coin production and mandated all 1933 minted coins to be destroyed. About 20 St Gaudens were stolen and led to a Secret Service warrant for arrests and confiscation of the coins. In 2002, a legal survivor sold for over $7.5 million.

SOURCES

1. Reed, Lawrence W., FDR’s Other ‘Day of Infamy’: When the US Seized All Citizens’ Gold, April 4, 2023.

https://catalyst.independent.org/2023/04/04/us-seized-gold/

2. Thomas, Jeff, Don’t Dismiss the possibility of Gold Confiscation, International Man, February 15, 2022.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/02/no_author/dont-dismiss-the-possibility-of-gold-confiscation/