The Con’s Of Having A Gold Backed IRA (continued):

Hopefully you have read parts one, two, and three, of this blog on gold coins, gold bars, and holding them inside of a gold backed IRA, because if you have not, then this last point might sound like a bit of conspiracy at first, but if I do my job well you will see that there is not only historical precedent for gold confiscation in the United States, the Government may need your gold now more than it ever has. Also, if you have read the first three parts of this blog and you are still considering a gold IRA, you should know and carefully consider what I am about to share with you.

Gold Confiscation And The United States.
The United States has confiscated the gold of it’s citizens before. The most historically memorable time was in 1933, when then President of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6102 and demanded that the people of the U.S. Keep only $100 worth of gold coins, and take the rest of their gold to an approved banking facility to be exchanged for paper Federal Reserve Notes. It was the patriotic thing to do to turn in your gold coins, and if you did’t feel like being patriotic and turning over your gold coins, there was a specific clause in Executive Order 6102 just for you; you could be subjected to 10 years in prison, or a $10,000 fine, or both.

A Lesser Known Time Gold Was Confiscated In The United States.
During the Civil War, there were many types of currencies floating about in the United States. There were gold coins and silver coins, and people trusted these. There were bank notes issued by private banks, which were very much like a personal check of today, although rather than like today you decide whether or not you trust the person writing the check, you had to decide whether or not you trusted the bank issuing the note. There were also paper notes issued by a particular state, and sometimes those could be exchanged for gold coins if you had enough of them. Soldiers in the North knew that their lives were worth something, and if they got killed in the war, they wanted their families to benefit from their service. The soldiers also knew that if they lost the war, any paper currency the North printed would become completely valueless (just like the confederate currency ended up becoming worthless). For this reason the soldiers of the North contracted to be paid in gold. The Government and the soldiers agreed on gold as the form of payment for fighting, and off to war they went. Of course, war changes people, and it changed this agreement as well. Payroll was late oftentimes, and oftentimes the soldiers were not paid in gold. When a soldier died, their families seldom received a pouch of gold in exchange for their loved ones life. While this may not seem like an outright confiscation to you, I bet it felt like one to them.

Gold Confiscation In The United States Today
The estimates put the private ownership of gold in the United States today at a single digit of the population, and I would counter that the gold in the hands of private individuals is not truly substantial. The ETF GLD however, is said to be one of the largest holdings of physical gold on the planet, and GLD exists because it holds gold on behalf of investors who don’t want to be “burdened” by having a few gold coins in their safe. The gold coins and gold bars that are held in federally approved IRA depositories around the country also hold very sizable amounts of gold coins and gold bullion products. Our country and government are now not insolvent, we are truly indebted to other nations, and these nations now value gold far more than they value paper Federal Reserve Notes. Remember that the only things that back the U.S. Dollar are the full faith in, and credit of, the United States. If our creditors ever decide that they no longer will accept U.S.Dollars, but demand gold, where do you think the Government will back it’s trucks up to first? Know that our creditors are no longer lending to us like they used to, which leaves only faith. If you plan on leaving gold bullion and gold coins in a gold backed IRA for years or even decades, you need to know and understand the whole story of gold confiscation in the United States, and you will need faith.