Executive Order 6102: Who Got Rich When FDR Took America's Gold

In 1933, Executive Order 6102 made hoarding gold a crime in America. Washington paid $20.67 an ounce, then said the same gold was worth $35. So who actually got rich when FDR took the gold? It isn't who most people think. We follow two identical $20 gold coins. One family takes theirs to the bank. The other hides it in a coffee can. Through the bank runs of the Great Depression, a gold price picked over breakfast, the gold revaluation of 1934, the Supreme Court's gold clause cases, Fort Knox and the 1933 Double Eagle, we track both coins for 41 years and up to the price of gold this week. Every claim is backed by the original documents on screen. CHAPTERS 00:00 The Day Owning Gold Became a Crime 01:28 Bank Runs of the Great Depression 04:33 Executive Order 6102: 26 Days 09:04 A Gold Price Picked Over Breakfast 11:51 The Overnight Profit: $20.67 to $35 14:58 Everyone Else Who Won 17:21 The Gold Clause Cases 19:41 41 Years of the Ban: Fort Knox to 1974 23:57 Both Coins Today. Could It Happen Again? SOURCES Executive Order 6102, April 5, 1933 (American Presidency Project): https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/docum... Emergency Banking Act, 48 Stat. 1 (govinfo): https://www.govinfo.gov/link/statute/... Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Circular No. 1177, March 1933 (FRASER): https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/d... Federal Reserve Bulletin, April 1933 and March 1934 (FRASER): https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/d... Gold Reserve Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 337 (govinfo): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/S... Norman v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 294 U.S. 240 (1935): https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremeco... Perry v. United States, 294 U.S. 330 (1935): https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremeco... Executive Order 10905, 1961 (American Presidency Project): https://presidency.ucsb.edu/documents... Nixon, Address to the Nation, August 15, 1971: https://www.gold.org/sites/default/fi... Public Law 93-373, 88 Stat. 445 (1974): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/S... Public Law 95-223, 91 Stat. 1625 (1977): https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/S... Langbord v. U.S. Treasury, 3rd Circuit (2016): https://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content... Treasury Status Report of U.S. Government Gold Reserve: https://fiscal.treasury.gov/resources... Treasury OIG gold reserve audit, OIG-26-002: https://oig.treasury.gov/system/files... Federal Reserve History, "Gold Reserve Act of 1934": https://www.federalreservehistory.org... Eichengreen & Sachs, "Exchange Rates and Economic Recovery in the 1930s" (NBER w1498): https://www.nber.org/papers/w1498 Hausman, Rhode & Wieland, "Recovery from the Great Depression" (NBER w23172): https://www.nber.org/papers/w23172.pdf ARCHIVAL MATERIAL Film: Universal Newsreel, 1933–1935 (public domain), National Archives. "South Dakota Saga" (c. 1940), Prelinger Archives. Nixon address, August 15, 1971 (public domain). Photos and documents: Library of Congress, National Archives, FRASER (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), govinfo.gov, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library, Smithsonian National Numismatic Collection, U.S. Army, Boston Public Library, New York Public Library, Wikimedia Commons (public domain and CC0). Money conversions: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U (September 2026). Music: Epidemic Sound. This video is history, not financial advice and not legal advice. Which family would you have been: the bank, or the coffee can? #MoneyHistory #GreatDepression #AmericanHistory