In 1933, when President Franklin Roosevelt came into office, he created the Emergency Banking Act, which demanded that all those who held gold (other than personal jewelry) turn it in to approved banks. Holders were given less than a month to do this. The government then paid them $20.67 per ounce--the going rate at the time. Following confiscation, the government declared that the new value of gold was $35.00. In essence, they arbitrarily increased the value of their newly purchased asset by 69%.

If confiscation of gold and silver coins were to occur now, we would still receive the current price for gold and silver, a price much higher than some persons paid for their coins originally--those who saw the writing on the wall early.