Then lead and brass will become the go-to commodities.
Executive Order 6102 is an executive order signed on April 5, 1933, by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt "forbidding the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States." The executive order was made under the authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917, as amended by the Emergency Banking Act in March 1933. The limitation on gold ownership in the US was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed a bill legalizing private ownership of gold coins, bars, and certificates by an Act of Congress, codified in Pub.L. 93–373,[1] which went into effect December 31, 1974.
The stated reason for the order was that hard times had caused "hoarding" of gold, stalling economic growth and worsened the depression.[2][3]
The main rationale behind the order was actually to remove the constraint on the Federal Reserve preventing it from increasing the money supply during the depression. The Federal Reserve Act (1913) required 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve Notes that were issued. By the late 1920s, the Federal Reserve had almost hit the limit of allowable credit, in the form of Federal Reserve demand notes, which could be backed by the gold in its possession (see Great Depression). Executive Order 6102 required all persons to deliver on or before May 1, 1933, all but a small amount of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates owned by them to the Federal Reserve in exchange for $20.67 (equivalent to $408 in 2019)[5] per troy ounce.
The order also permitted any person to own up to $100 in gold coins, a face value equivalent to 5 troy ounces (160 g) of gold valued at about $6,339 in 2016. The same paragraph also exempted "gold coins having recognized special value to collectors of rare and unusual coins," which protected recognized gold coin collections from legal seizure and likely melting. The price of gold from the Treasury for international transactions was then raised by the Gold Reserve Act to $35 an ounce (equivalent to $691 in 2019)[5]. The resulting profit that the government realized funded the Exchange Stabilization Fund, established by the 1934 Gold Reserve Act.
