The reason given for the order was that difficult times had led to the hoarding of gold, which had stalled economic growth and worsened the depression, since the United States was then using the gold standard as its currency. Gold is now traded on open markets around the world. The United States does not dictate the price of gold. Unlike 1933, the government has no way of controlling the price of gold and, therefore, confiscation could entail potential price risks.
For those looking to invest in gold, one option is to convert your IRA to gold. This allows you to take advantage of the security and stability that gold provides while still enjoying the tax benefits of an IRA. It seems unlikely that these steps will be taken if there is a possibility that the government will confiscate gold. If the government wanted to seize gold again, no currency would be safe except those that are truly exceptional numismatic coins, in a verifiable way. One can research this topic and draw one's own conclusions; however, it seems that the idea of the confiscation of gold by the government is a bit of an exaggeration in today's world.
While it remains, and always will be, a way for people to protect their wealth, the government is no more likely to confiscate it than their home or the contents of their bank account. In this way, we will see not only where the story began, but also why it is highly unlikely that the government will issue a future gold confiscation order. The seizure of the metal allowed the government to print more dollars to try to stimulate the economy and also buy more dollars in international markets to prop up the exchange rate. In response, the Netherlands imposed a series of restrictions on gold that were never confiscated.
The myth that certain types of gold coins cannot be confiscated originated in Roosevelt's Executive Order. The myth of the confiscation of gold is a fear-based story that unscrupulous entities in the gold world use to convince people to buy old gold coins with a high profit margin, rather than modern ingots. The confiscation of gold and the end of the gold clauses enacted by Congress allowed the Federal Reserve to increase the money supply and, at the same time, removed the United States from the gold standard. Ultimately, however, the government could not be stopped and the ownership of gold remained illegal in the United States until the 1970s.
While there is no federal law that explicitly states that the government can request its gold, during extreme crises the government has the means to confiscate it, either in the form of an executive order or law. There is a logical thought process for excluding collector coins, since the government was trying to gain monetary control over gold bars. The government doesn't need its gold to inflate the money supply; it can do so with the floating value of the dollar. And in 1966, to stop the pound from falling, the UK government banned citizens from owning more than four gold or silver coins and blocked the private import of gold.
