[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

History ---- What can and has been done before CAN be done again....

"By virtue of the authority vested in me by Section 5 (b) of the Act of October 6, 1917, as amended by Section 2 of the Act of March 9, 1933, entitled "An Act to provide relief in the existing national emergency in banking, and for other purposes," in which amendatory Act Congress declared that a serious emergency exists, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do declare that said national emergency still continues to exist and pursuant to said section do hereby prohibit the hoarding of gold coin, gold bullion, and gold certificates within the continental United States by individuals, partnerships, associations and corporations and hereby prescribe the following regulations...."

Executive Order 6102—Forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion and Gold Certificates April 05, 1933

Read the whole thing.

[chud]

FDR issued Executive Order 6102 at a time when the dollar was backed by Gold.
People could go to a bank and trade in their dollars for gold. When FDR's government got reckless with spending, many citizens decided that they would rather have the gold. FDR didn't like that, and insisted that they turn the gold back in for dollars.
Some did, some didn't.

The dollar is no longer backed by gold.

The final connection to gold was ended by Nixon when France thought America was spending too much money on the Vietnam War. Up to that time, nations still could exchange dollars for gold, and France decided to do just that.

Since then, we have been in the petrodollar world. The dollar was tied to oil instead.

There is no basis for a gold confiscation today. You could argue that silver is more critical to infrastructure.

[Vermont Lt]

That only works if your money is based on the value of gold. That stopping being a concern in the 1970s.

No reason to take away gold today.