FDR Executive Order 6102 of 1933 & the Gold Reserve Act

Executive Order 6102 (“EO 6102”) was issued on April 5th, 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The EO 6102 forbade the hoarding of gold, gold coin, and gold certificates in the United States. The justification for the order was that the economic bad times of the Great Depression had led to the hoarding of gold, the stalling of economic growth, and making the depression worse as laid out in Presidential Proclamation 2039.

EO 6102 required all persons to deliver all but 5 ounces of gold to be allowed for personal possession to the Federal Reserve by May 1, 1933. They would be paid $20.67 per troy ounce for their surrendered gold. Violations of the order were subject to $10,000 fine, up to ten years of prison, or both. Not a year later, on January 30, 1934, the 73rd Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act that revalued the gold that citizens were paid less than a year ago at $35, after forcing people by law under penalty of massive fines or prison at $20.67 an ounce of their surrendered gold.

The key fact needed to understand what was done here and why was that all Federal Reserve notes at the time required 40% backing by gold holdings per the Federal Reserve Act. That means that the Federal Reserve was required to have 40% of the value the currency notes (dollars) represents held in gold at their vaults to allow them to create more currency. It was not like it is today when they have no restraints whatsoever and can create currency at will for whatever reasons they want. The powers that be wanted more currency and inflation and the only way for them to achieve that was to acquire more gold. So they concocted this plot to rip off the citizens of the United States for their gold.

This price change issued by the 1934 Gold Reserve Act also incentivized gold miners globally to increase their production and foreigners to export their gold to the United States where it had a larger degree of purchasing power, while simultaneously devaluing the U.S. dollar by increasing inflation, assisting in export expansion at a time when the U.S. was still a manufacturing leader in the world. Another fun feature of the Gold Reserve Act is that it removed the ability of Federal Reserve note holders to demand their payment in gold, which effectively destroyed the gold standard. The revaluing of Gold allowed the Federal Reserve to realize a 69% increase on its balance sheet, allowing it to create a substantial amount of new currency.

Analysis: The combined effects of EO 6102 and the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 were the forced surrender of gold by citizens at a reduced rate, only to be revalued less than a year later at a much higher rate. This is theft by coercion for the benefit of the goals of the elite class. There is no moral or ethical justification for this action and to this day it remains a crime in every sense of that word. The powers that be of the day had their excuses, which are challenged heavily in modern times by anyone who doesn’t tow the establishment line, but the ends do not justify the means when it comes to deception against the People and theft of their hard money.

The greater crime here though was not the forced seizure of gold by government and private interest collusion, as the central banks are indeed privately owned and controlled despite the intentionally dishonest claims to the contrary, it was the covert and sneaky destruction of the gold standard and the empowerment of a private institution with narrow self interests to create as much currency as it chooses with zero oversight whatsoever. The long term effects of these acts was the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar and therefore indirect theft of purchasing power and wealth from the People.

Despite the pathetic defenses of these actions by establishment cronies or nihilistic know-nothings, no fully informed majority supported these actions or would. This remains another unacceptable abuse of and theft from the People in a long series of abuses and deceptions tied to the Federal Reserve Bank and central banking as a whole.