[1][2] Immediately following passage of the Act, the President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, changed the statutory price of gold from $20.67 per troy ounce to $35.

A year earlier, in 1933, Executive Order 6102 had made it a criminal offense for U.S. citizens to own or trade gold anywhere in the world, with exceptions for some jewelry and collector's coins.

The United States was still suffering the negative effects of the 1929 stock market crash in 1934 when the Gold Reserve Act was enacted.

President Roosevelt was challenged to decrease unemployment, raise wages and increase the money supply, but was restricted in doing so by the United States' strict adherence to the gold standard.

[4] Traditional beliefs about the recovery from the Great Depression hold that the growth was due to fiscal policy and the United States' participation in World War II.

[3] The revaluation of gold referenced was an active policy decision made by the Roosevelt administration in order to devalue the dollar.

[4] An increase in M1, which is a result of an inflow of gold, would also lower real interest rates, thus stimulating the purchases of durable consumer goods by reducing the opportunity cost of spending.

[3] Over the next 20 years the countries' reserves grew as the amount of gold in the market increased and as normal trading occurred.

Johnson explains that the Treasury's gold policy "was an essential instrument for producing desired political aims".

[5] In other words, the Federal Reserve System had served more as a "technical instrument for effecting the Treasury’s policies", according to Johnson.

[5] Treasury managers wished to halt monetary expansion in 1936 by stagnating gold and increasing reserve requirements.

[5] After the act of 1934, deflation, which would sometimes be as great as −10.5% in the bust of 1921 (which was preceded by over 14% inflation for 4 consecutive years immediately prior to 1921), would never again drop below −2.1%.

Gus Farber, a diamond and jewelry merchant was arrested with his father and 12 others for illegally selling $20 gold coins without a license.

[7] The 2008 decision 216 Jamaica Avenue, LLC vs S&R Playhouse Realty Co.[8] established that a gold clause in contracts signed before 1933 was only suspended, not erased, and under certain limited circumstances might be reactivated.