That thieving dog Roosevelt didn't steal Father's gold although he got some of it.
Your father was lucky. I read where two brothers had an idea of what was coming and converted $20,000 into gold just before Roosevelt devalued. After the devaluation the Feds tracked them down and confiscated their gold, paying them $20,000 in paper. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, who ruled against them, saying that they got their $20,000 back ("equal value" they called it) so the confiscation was legal. Up until the 70s, paper money had the notation that it was "redeemable in lawful money", admitting that the Federal Reserve Notes weren't real money. Some guy sent in a $20 bill, requesting redemption in gold or silver, as per the Note. The Feds sent back two $10 bills. The guy claimed he was just getting two IOUs for one and sued. The Court threw it out - it is money because the government says so. Look at your paper money now - it just says it is legal tender. By law you must take it in payment of goods or services.
When he got over there he saw that those who had survived four years of the Hun and the Krupp gun had done so by having gold. If you still had gold coins you could still eat.
I once worked in Asbury Park, N.J., which had a large Jewish population, including my landlady. I asked her why the Jews were preoccupied with gold and got an instant education. She said during the runaway inflation in 1930s Germany, she had two gold bracelets. She'd pawn one and get enough money to live on for a month or so. The next month she'd pawn the other one at a much higher price, then pay off the first one and pocket the difference. Went forquite a while like that. More ominously, she said gold kept her out of the camps for a while and when her luck ran out, she was able to bribe a guard and eventually buy her escape out of the country. (the number on her arm was still legible.) "Gold will buy you things that no amount of paper ever will" she counseled.
Gold stocks, otoh, pour out cash like an artesian well as margins fatten - look at Goldcorp, for instance.
Boy, that artesian well analogy is the truth. I got into some South African gold stocks during the run up and did quite well. (Friends were advising "safe" GM stock instead of those "wild speculations".) I laughed all the way to the bank. I ran across an interesting tidbit about gold mining companies. When prices were escalationg on a daily basis, they began mining the lower-yield veins profitably, saving the richer veins for when prices declined, as they inevitably did. Smart people.
I always got a kick out of the "can't use gold as money as it's too scarce" argument. Like any other natural resource, it was only scarce at the fixed price. One it was free to reach it's current value, it was amazing to see how much gold was found. The real reason is that the government can't print gold or tell you that the ounce you have now only weighs a half ounce.
So when the economy grows by 4% we'll find 4% more gold?