[OT] why was private gold ownership made illegal in the US? (Re: "to outlaw general purpose computers")

Duncan Frissell frissell at panix.com
Tue Jul 2 18:46:15 PDT 2002


On Tue, 2 Jul 2002, Adam Back wrote:

> Just curious, but what was the rationale under which private possession
> of gold was made illegal in the US?  It boggles the mind...
>
> Adam

Eric's comment are correct.

A bit more info.  The US wanted to devalue the $ and substitute a general
gold standard for a government to government gold standard.  The gold
standard price of gold was $20.67/ounce.  By forcing Americans to turn in
their gold before devaluation, the Feds got more gold for less money.
They also wanted the freedom to inflate.  Gold clauses were common in
contracts and they would have made soft money difficult.

As is traditional under US law, gold ownership was banned for US citizens
and permanent residents anywhere on earth.  There were controlled
exemptions for coin collectors, jewelers, and dentists.

Gold smuggling became popular during the Vietnam war and the monetary
crises of the '60s and '70s.

It was re-legalized in January of 1975 (the only decent act of the Ford
Admin).

DCF





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