Gold's Pending Collapse

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Originally posted by ageka

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Originally posted by catman

CiScO,

I'm a little confused at your response. We went off the gold standard in 1933 and off the silver standard in 1968..?

catman

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Internationally the USA maintained the Bretton Woods agreement till 1971
That they forbade gold in 1933 internally has nothing to do with the gold standard I think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Woods_system

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Execellent, that was exactly my point. The Bretton Woods agreement as I understood it was, foreign governments were able to approach the USA with greenbacks and exchange them for pure gold from Ft. Knox or any other USA gold depository on demand. At the time it became very expensive to continue to do this since the dollar even back then was losing its value in a big way. I recall when I arrived in Germany in 1969 the dollar exchange was 4DM per dollar, boy did that rate drop like a rock. Since ageka states that agreement was terminated in 1971, as I remember, it was President Nixon that did that, and inflation was eating the USA up alive. Back then also if you all recall, he was also negotiating the end of the Vietnam war which if I recall ended in 1972.

Maybe this article will tie this all together!!! Printed from Goldfinger.com lots of history stuff on that site!!!

Many precious metals firms maintain that because old gold coins are "collectables," they would not be subject to another gold recall. Some firms say that premiums of at least 10 - 15% automatically make coins "collectibles." No current Federal law or Treasury Department regulation or directive supports these statements.

The statements that specific types of gold coins are not subject to confiscation are based on an Executive Order that President Roosevelt issued in 1933 prohibiting private ownership of Gold Bullion & Gold Bullion coins. The executive order exempted "gold coins having a recognized special value to collectors [of rare and unusual coins]," but it did not define "special value" or "collector". The evidence suggests that sellers promoting old gold coins propagate this myth because it makes it easier to sell high-priced "old gold" coins.

Although Roosevelt's Executive Order required U.S. citizens to turn in their gold coins and gold bullion, foreigners continued to redeem paper dollars for gold until 1971. From the end of World War II to 1971, the United States gold reserves were reduced by more than 50%.

It is widely believed that all the gold coins surrendered under Roosevelt's prohibition were refined into .999 fine bullion bars. This is not true. It was to the government's advantage to pay foreign debt holders with (22 karat) gold coins versus (24 karat) bullion bars. With the official price of gold at $35 an ounce, a foreign bank redeeming $70 million paper dollars received 2,000,000 ounces of gold (if the Treasury delivered gold bullion bars of 24 karat).

However, when the Treasury delivered gold coins of 22 karat (with a face value of 70 million) it delivered only 1,935,000 ounces of gold, thus retaining 65,000 ounces of Gold in the U.S. reserves. Therefore, it was to the U.S. Treasury Department's advantage to pay out U.S. gold coins instead of bullion bars.

The entire prohibition & recall issue revolves around the fact that it was most beneficial (if not very shrewd), to pay U.S. foreign debt with 22 karat Bullion Coins versus 24 karat Bullion Bars. If this required that the Government confiscate [any & all] Bullion coins which are privately owned versus releasing pure Gold for payment of national debt, then confiscation it would be!

A widely overlooked fact about the Fixing price of Gold Bullion (1933): Before the "fix" was placed (at $35 per oz.), Gold was trading in the mid $20 range. Any persons holding Gold [bought before the Fix] reaped substantial profits at the time of surrender. And during the middle of the Depression (1933), the next best thing to hold [other than precious metals] was cash!

Thanks ageka, things are begining to become much clearer to me now. I think your right about most U.S. citizens not knowing what was going on behind the scenes.I'm learning a great deal about what I thought I had a pretty clear picture of before. Wow was I off base! Thanks for the excellent informtion, Mike