[1] The critics also claimed this Executive Order would lead to an inflation of supply of credit and currency, which would cause a fraudulent economic boom which would inevitably bust and result in a depression.
On March 6, taking advantage of a wartime statute that had not been repealed, he issued Presidential Proclamation 2039 that forbade the hoarding 'of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency', under penalty of $10,000 fine or ten years' imprisonment or both.
"[5] The main rationale behind the order was actually to remove the constraint on the Federal Reserve preventing it from increasing the money supply during the depression.
The order specifically exempted "customary use in industry, profession or art", a provision that covered artists, jewelers, dentists, sign-makers, etc.
[13] A New York attorney named Frederick Barber Campbell had a deposit at Chase National Bank of over 5,000 troy ounces (160 kg) of gold.
A few months later Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which gave legislative permanence to Roosevelt's orders.
Farber, his father, and 12 others were arrested in four American cities after a sting operation conducted by the Secret Service.
Government agents raided the Barabans' business and found another hidden box of US and foreign gold coins.
The contracts and the bonds were written precisely to avoid currency debasement by requiring payment in gold coin.
The consolidated Gold Clause Cases were the following: The Supreme Court upheld all seizures as constitutional, with Justices James Clark McReynolds, Willis Van Devanter, George Sutherland, and Pierce Butler dissenting.
The limitation on gold ownership in the US was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill to "permit United States citizens to purchase, hold, sell, or otherwise deal with gold in the United States or abroad" with an act of Congress codified in Pub.
§ 5118(d)(2)) amended the 1933 Joint Resolution to make it clear that parties could again include so-called gold clauses in contracts made after 1977.
[27] In the 21st century, concerns have emerged that a scenario similar to Executive Order 6102, which led to gold confiscation, could affect Bitcoin holdings due to rising government debt.
[28][29] However, Bitcoin proponents note that self-custody of Bitcoin—where individuals hold their own private keys—mitigates these risks by ensuring that assets remain secure and outside third-party control.
[30][31] According to a hoax, Roosevelt ordered all safe deposit boxes in the country seized and searched for gold by an official of the Internal Revenue Service.
By virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917, as amended by Section 2 of the Act of March 9, 1933, in which Congress declared that a serious emergency exists, I as President, do declare that the national emergency still exists; that the continued private hoarding of gold and silver by subjects of the United States poses a grave threat to the peace, equal justice, and well-being of the United States; and that appropriate measures must be taken immediately to protect the interests of our people.
All safe deposit boxes in banks or financial institutions have been sealed.... All sales or purchases or movements of such gold and silver... are hereby prohibited.
[33] In fact, safe deposit boxes held by individuals were not forcibly searched or seized under the order, and the few prosecutions that occurred in the 1930s for gold "hoarding" were executed under different statutes.
One of the few such cases occurred in 1936, when a safe deposit box containing over 10,000 troy ounces (310 kg) of gold belonging to Zelik Josefowitz, who was not a US citizen, was seized with a search warrant as part of a prosecution for tax evasion.
In Poland, a similar regulation was issued on November 7, 1919, which forced citizens to sell their gold and silver to the state.
[38] The United Kingdom introduced the gold trade ban law in 1966 (Exchange Control Act 1947).