America Banned Gold in 1933 — So How Did People Protect Their Savings?

In April 1933, the United States ordered its citizens to hand over their gold. Coins, bullion, gold certificates, all of it, sold to the government at $20.67 an ounce under threat of a $10,000 fine and ten years in prison. Nine months later, Washington revalued that same gold at $35 an ounce and kept the difference. So how did ordinary Americans protect their savings? And who really won and lost? In this documentary: • The banking collapse of 1933 and the great gold hoarding panic • Franklin Roosevelt's bank holiday and the first fireside chat • Executive Order 6102 and its little-known exemptions • The Frederick Barber Campbell case that embarrassed the government • George Warren, Henry Morgenthau and gold prices set over breakfast • The Gold Reserve Act of 1934 and the $2.8 billion revaluation profit • The gold clause cases: when the Supreme Court said the government broke its word • How families kept their gold: exemptions, collectors' coins, foreign banks, mining shares, and hiding places • Fort Knox, the 1933 Double Eagle, Bretton Woods, 1971 and the return of private gold in 1974 Chapters: 0:00 The Great Gold Panic of 1933 3:46 Roosevelt Closes Every Bank 7:21 Executive Order 6102 11:18 Gold Prices Set Over Breakfast 15:22 The 35 Dollar Revaluation 19:39 The Supreme Court and the Gold Clauses 23:26 How Families Kept Their Gold 27:18 From Bretton Woods to 1974 Archival sources: Archival films: Internet Archive (Prelinger Archives, Universal Newsreels and U.S. government films, public domain). Photos (Wikimedia Commons, public domain): Henry Morgenthau Jr. by Harris & Ewing; John Maynard Keynes caricature by David Low; Dean Acheson, U.S. Department of State; William H. Woodin, Acme Newspicture; Supreme Court 1932-1937, Harris & Ewing; Homestake Mine 1900, Detroit Publishing Co.; U.S. Bullion Depository 1939, Public Works Administration; 1933 Double Eagle, National Numismatic Collection (Jaclyn Nash). Full list of film sources: see pinned comment. Narration is AI-assisted. Archival films and photos are from public archives (public domain / Creative Commons) and are used for educational, historical commentary. #EconomicHistory #History #GoldStandard #GreatDepression