FDR's Gold and Silver Executive Orders and Their Effects on Families

Helping the Bankers One Crisis at a Time

*originally published on Sage Hana’s Substack

** Disclaimer: I'm not a banker or financial expert of any kind. This is a personal story with some of my opinions mixed in.

When I was a young child both sides of my extended family played cards from after dinner to late at night. The men played Poker and the women played Bridge and Canasta. We kids ran around between the card tables.

But I sat on my dad's lap. I liked to count his “chips.” Their talk was all about politics. (In those days the conversations were civil.)

From my earliest memories of them it seemed like all I ever heard about President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was that he was a thief who stole my families' farms and their money too. The FDR talk always started when the money came out for the card games. They used quarters, half dollars and dollar coins for Poker chips.

Before the Great Depression which began after the stock market crash of 1929, both sets of families were prosperous farmers. All of my grandparents had 8-12 brothers and sisters who all worked on these farms. But the Dust Bowl and the Depression meant that many of them lost their farms and moved into the homes of the ones who somehow kept going. (To this day many of my cousins are farmers, descendants of my grandparents' generation.)

In this November 1936 photo from the U.S. Farm Security Administration, a mother, originally from Oklahoma stands with her five children near Fresno, Calif., where she works as a cotton picker. The Dust Bowl led to a massive migration of Midwestern farmers out of the region, many of whom traveled to California in search of jobs

They all hated Roosevelt for not doing enough to help them during those horrible years. And for allowing the bankers to seize the farms, making many of them homeless.

But the rich always protect each other, duh. Catherine Austin Fitts says these events are always to enrich the banker class by enabling them to scoop up distressed assets for pennies. Farms, companies, real estate, etc. And just today I saw stories about Oprah and Bezos wanting to buy out Lahaina property owners who lost their homes to the fires. Probably for pennies on the dollar.

That conversation about the farms was mild compared to the silver and gold theft conversations. My maternal grandfather had managed to sell his farm instead of having it seized (for less than it was worth though, because he had to sell in a hurry) and he bought silver and gold and a restaurant. My paternal grandfather bought gold as well, even while his family were living in my grand aunt's house after his farm was foreclosed on. So they were saving to buy a house and another business while still helping my grand aunt on her farm.

In March 1933 Roosevelt issued a Presidential Proclamation that forbade the "hoarding of gold or silver coin or bullion or currency." Then April 5,1933. Roosevelt signed Executive order number 6102 and citizens were forced to turn in their gold for $20.67 per ounce. They were only given till May 1,1933. 25 days! The consequences of not complying were severe. $10,000 and/or up to 10 years in prison. $10,000 in those days was equivalent to around $226,000 as of 2022.

I think that this was to limit time for organized resistance.

The order forbade "the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States." The order specifically exempted "customary use in industry, profession or art," a provision that covered artists, jewelers, dentists, sign-makers, etc. The order also permitted any person to hold up to $100 in gold coins, a face value equivalent to 5 troy ounces (160 g) of gold valued at approximately $10,000 in 2020. ~Spookipedia

The same paragraph also exempted "gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins", which protected recognized gold coin collections from legal seizure.~Spookipedia. (This means rich gold collectors did not have to comply.)

Then as now, there was more than one reason for this order. The ostensible reason was that people were hoarding their silver and gold and the government needed it to run the country. My relatives said it was to bail out the central bank(Federal Reserve) and "those greedy SOB bankers." (SOB was a favorite word 🤣)

The stated reason for the order was that hard times had caused "hoarding" of gold, stalling economic growth and worsening the depression as the US was then using the gold standard for its currency. Citizens had to comply, under penalty of $10,000 fine or ten years' imprisonment or both. ~Spookipedia

The Federal Reserve Act (1913) required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes that were issued. But by the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost reached the limit of allowable credit, in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes, which could be backed by the gold in its possession. ~Spookipedia

So the real reason behind the order was actually to remove the constraint on the Federal Reserve that was preventing it from increasing the money supply during the depression.

Or, they needed more gold = let's steal it from the citizens!

So they got the gold and the citizens got paper with green pictures on it.

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Background:

Why Did Roosevelt Kill the Gold Standard?

15:00 GMT 20.04.2023

Ilya Tsukanov

Until the 1930s, the United States dollar was backed by gold, with holders able head to their local bank and swap a $20 bill and change for a troy ounce of the precious metal. That changed during the Great Depression. What prompted the US government's decision? And what were its consequences?

Thursday marks the 90th anniversary of the April 20, 1933 proclamation by President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) on the suspension of the convertibility of dollar notes into gold, the nationalization of private stocks of the precious metal, and the effective suspension of the gold standard, with dollars convertible into gold only in official international transactions from thereon out.

Two weeks earlier, on April 5, 1933, Roosevelt issued an executive order requiring Americans to hand over all gold coins, bullion or bullion certificates they owned to their nearest Federal Reserve-affiliated bank. Anyone who failed to do so could face a hefty $10,000 fine (about $230k today), ten years in jail, or both.

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And August 9, 1934 Roosevelt signed Executive order 6814 so citizens had to turn in their silver, again with disastrous consequences for my grandparents. It outlawed private ownership of quantities more than 500 troy ounces. This time they had 90 days to comply.

Citizens were allowed to keep silver coins though and at that time dimes, quarters, and half dollars were silver. So it was just the silver bullion and silver certificates that had to be surrendered. The fines for not complying were severe, just like with EO 6102.

My paternal grandparents said this theft added years to the amount of time it took them to buy a house. Same story on my maternal grandparents side. All of them did start over and thrive, and by the time I came along I had no idea of the hardships they all had endured.

They lived in nice houses and had nice things and owned businesses. My maternal grandfather had studied law so he could fight any more "government intrusion" as he called it, and had become a judge. But Poker games were litanies about our thieving government and what it had done to them. And about that "SOB Roosevelt." My relatives use lots of colorful language. SOB is actually mild for them. 🤣

Even as a young child I felt the weight of their shared trauma that the government can just confiscate your wealth at any time, and that bankers and lawyers cannot be trusted. (There were shenanigans around the farm confiscations by the bankers and the lawyers helping the bankers.) They talked about this at every Poker game.

So even though they were all well off, they were ever watchful of the government. Probably why I was distrustful of the government even in childhood. It's only gotten worse since then. Now they're not content to steal your wealth. They want your health and your happiness and even your life.

As an aside, In 1965 the silver content of coins dropped to 40%. Now there is no silver in our coins except for Silver Eagle 1 ounce Silver Dollars. (Most people buy those as collectibles, not to spend.) Thus money is worth less and less. Then in 1971 Nixon took us off the gold standard. It's all fiat now, baby. Nothing backs those green papers any more. Just rev up the printing press.

In 1974 it became legal to own gold again. But was that just so private citizens can save gold for them to confiscate later?

These questions keep me up at night sometimes. And sometimes I want to scream. Why does the government get to tell me what metals I am allowed to own? Or how much coinage I can keep? Or what plants I can use? And why can't I collect rainwater? And why do they want to tax the air I breathe?

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Okay back on topic. The Federal Reserve and our government are in deep trouble again, (we are trillions in debt, and have crumbling infrastructure, but sure, send more $$$ to Ukraine and Afghanistan) so I guess get ready for more wealth confiscation in one form or another. Watch your wallet!

I saw this on Facebook today:

Chris Kirckof

Any mentally capable person should be able to see that everything is designed to make you a weak, lazy, fat, depressed, broke, docile, compliant, sedated, distracted, 9-5 laborer and a hyper consumer…. the ultimate slave. Once you realize that then everything starts to make more sense.

Then you can act accordingly and do basically the opposite of everything recommended by the government, media, television and school system. Then you’ll radically change who you are and what you stand for and you’ll become everything they are scared of…a fearless, healthy, disciplined, freethinking, financially free and uncontrollable individual.

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