Executive Order 6102

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 Relief Act in March 1933. At the time and in the years that followed, this policy was highly controversial and faced criticism from those who asserted it was "completely immoral" and "a flagrant violation of the solemn promises made in the Gold Standard Act of 1900" and promises made to purchasers of Liberty and Victory Loans during World War I. The critics also claimed this executive order would lead to an inflation of supply of credit and currency, which would cause a fraudulent economic boom which would inevitably bust and result in a depression. In 1934, the Gold Reserve Act was passed, changing the statutory gold content of the U.S. Dollar from $20.67 to $35 an ounce. This effectively devalued the dollar, reducing the amount of gold required to back U.S. Currency and enabling the Federal Reserve to expand the money supply. The limitation on gold ownership in the United States was repealed after President Gerald Ford signed the International Development Association Appropriations Act of 1975, a rider to which legalized private ownership of gold coins, bars, and certificates, and that went into effect December 31, 1974.