Gold Confiscation Order

US President’s Gold Confiscation Order issued April 5th 1933

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the Hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States".

• The order caused all gold coin production to cease and all 1933 minted coins to be destroyed.

• The main rationale behind the order was to remove the constraint on the Federal Reserve which prevented it from increasing the money supply during the depression; the Federal Reserve Act (1913) required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes issued.

US President’s Gold Confiscation Order issued April 5th 1933

Gold's standard-free 50 years leave metal behind S&P 500

Gold has a golden anniversary Sunday. Fifty years will have passed since President Richard Nixon said the U.S. government would no longer convert dollars into the precious metal at $35 an ounce, which effectively ended the gold standard. 

While the metal generally had bigger gains since that time than the S&P 500 Index, there was no comparison between the two after accounting for dividends, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The S&P 500’s total return approached 20,000% this week, while gold returned about 4,200%.