Gold Nationalization 1933 – Family Stories ?

RWB

I am interested in learning about any depression-era related numismatic stories the members might happen to have.

I’m particularly interested in anecdotes relating to the gold hoarding and nationalization orders, or to the conversion of coin collections into ready cash for basic necessities.

(Please, no canned “gold bug” tales – that’s not what I’m looking for.)

EagleEye

My Grandfather worked for Engelhard in Elizabeth, NJ 1928-1955. He spent his day melting gold coins.

mhammerman

Very Interesting Topic

Gold Reserve Act of 1933

$10 Gold Certificate

Gold Confiscation Order

Horizon

I really don't have a story to tell, but, if I recall correctly, I remember my father telling me how Roosevelt decree that everyone had to turn in their gold at $20.00 an ounce only to increase the price to $30.00 an ounce after everyone turn over their coins to the government.

PerryHall

For many years, the general public thought that it was illegal to own gold coins and they all had to be turned in to the government. Of course, we coin collectors know that's not true.

Artist

My grandmother told me that when she was a child that she would receive gold coins at Christmas and at her birthday - much the way people put twenties into greeting cards with oval-cutouts today. She said she kept them in a box together until the recall of '33 when fearing that they might become worthless as money, she dutifully turned all of them in.

Growing up as a YN who lusted after above all things gold coins, this story (and the one about the 1935 NY Yankees team autographed program she threw away sometime in the late 60s during a move) used to turn me inside out! As an older numismatic, I have been able to reassemble what might have been in my grandmother's box, and included in the collection a gold birthyear 1914 type set. A few years ago I showed the coins to my grandmother (who is still alive) and she grew very nostolgic - she recognized the designs though she had not seen them in decades.

sumnom

That's a great story, Artist!

cladking

No family tales of note, but I have a series of telegrams between the
regulators and a failing bank in Newton, Illinois which is fascinating.

fishcooker

In 1933 Grandpa married Grandma and they had 63 cents total. Gold was pretty irrelevant to the family.

sumnom

Yeah, I don't think my family came into contact with gold coins all that often. I wonder how many people did.

SanctionII

I have told this story before and think it is pretty neat. Since it is related to the topic of the OP I will tell it again.

My father in law was born in 1919. He is 88 years old, going in 89 years. When he was six years old in 1925 his aunt gave him and his three siblings each a brand new 1925D $2.50 gold coin.

He still has the coin, 82 years after he received it. I saw it for the first time in 2004. It was in an envelope. I bought a capital holder for it and had my father in law put the coin in the holder. He told me that when he dies he wants the coin to go to my wife. Thereafter it would go to one of our sons.

Artist

<< <i>Yeah, I don't think my family came into contact with gold coins all that often. I wonder how many people did. >>



The issue of high monetary value aside for depression-era gold coins aside, I think their purpose from the turn of the century onward was largely ceremonial. Something I forgot to add to my other post, is that in addition to my collection, I aquired a small, red jewelry box with a green felt lining - embossed on the top in gilt lettering are the words "Merry Xmas" and inside there is space for one $2.50 coin.

Artist

<< <i>That's a great story, Artist! >>



Thanks!

BobaFett72

my grandmother and Grandad had a 3 year old daughter; (my Mom) to look after; she was a seamstress at a pocketbook factory and he worked with chemicals making textiles.

Growing up my grandma told me that they scraped by on deli meats, day old bread and potatoes. definitely no gold in the family coffers (other than their wedding bands which i now have)

WarNickelHoarder

I was talking about this with my Grandmother not long before she passed away earlier this year. She told me that every year on her birthday my great grandfather would give her a $10 Gold Eagle. After FDR's recall, my great grandfather made her turn in all of them, except for the 1916-S, which was her birth year. When I asked her if she still had the coin, she couldn't remember. After she passed away, I was helping my father clean out her home and found a velvet box in the back of her closet. It held my grandfather's silver star and purple heart from WWII as well as the $10 Indian. My father held onto the medals, but entrusted me with the coin. It's a beautiful MS63 and I should really get it out of the SDB and send it in to PCGS to make sure its preserved.

Tom

Coinosaurus

"We were supposed to turn in our gold, but we didn't have any to turn in", was how my grandmother explained it. Two points:

1) Most people didn't have gold to turn in.

2) It was considered a patriotic duty to do so.

malachi555

<< <i>"We were supposed to turn in our gold, but we didn't have any to turn in", was how my grandmother explained it. Two points:

1) Most people didn't have gold to turn in.

2) It was considered a patriotic duty to do so. >>



My family fell under category 1. What suprises me is that if the response was largely obeyed, how did so many coins survive? Just scrolling through the PCGS population reports shows thousands of coins. Any thoughts?

IRCWCoins

<< <i>

<< <i>"We were supposed to turn in our gold, but we didn't have any to turn in", was how my grandmother explained it. Two points:

1) Most people didn't have gold to turn in.

2) It was considered a patriotic duty to do so. >>



My family fell under category 1. What suprises me is that if the response was largely obeyed, how did so many coins survive? Just scrolling through the PCGS population reports shows thousands of coins. Any thoughts? >>



A lot of them were shipped to Europe.

supertooth

RWB----- My mom and dad [ born 1915 and 1916] and myself [born 1946] lived with my grandparents [ born 1892 and 1893]. I started to collect in 1955. Along about 1958 or so, I remember sitting down with all of them---I had been collecting enough to ask the right questions.
Where was all the family gold coins? Certainly we must have some in the bank or old drawer somewhere? I remember a sort of collective kind of groan---with a sort of satirical laugh from my grandparents. I received the story that we were not rich---that they had gone through the depression. That there was no money left---less more any gold coins. And my grandparents reminded me that they would have turned them in anyway. We all must remember that up until my generation---most folks really believed in our government. That they told the truth---and that you must obey for the good of everyone. It was that WWII attitude where everyone worked together. I cannot complain, however, as they all helped me with my collection.

My grandmother's sister---my great aunt---was a coin collector. I was given a couple of coins that I still have till this day. Was supposed to get her gold when she died---but her house was looted by her family after her death. They showed up years later at another family members 50th wedding anniversary.

On my wife's side of the family----her parents went to school with mine---I asked my mother--in--law the same question. Got virtually the same answers. My wife's family actually helped to feed a lot of folks during the depression. Anyway, she told me that one year she got a 5 dollar gold piece as her Christmas present from her boss. I asked what she did with it? Was taken to downtown Baltimore where dresses were bought.

I did have another aunt whose father--in--law collected one dollar gold pieces. I actually saw them as a child. That aunt just died last year----she NEVER knew what happened to those gold coins.

Guess you could say that I was close---just not close enough. Bob [supertooth]

Coinosaurus

One thing I have never quite understood about the gold recall is that much gold coin continued to trade openly at bullion value between gold dealers and collectors. Sure, there was an exception clause in the gold act "for coins of special value to collectors", but that special value, in many cases ended up representing the value of the bullion and not any numismatic value. You can look in Tom Elder sales of the period, for example, and see many $20s being traded for $35-$40. The government would let you hold gold like that while at the same time the Secret Service was intimidating non-collectors who held much the same sort of coins, into "redeeming" them for currency.

I guess I should not be so surprised that the government might act inconsistently. The Secret Service gold investigations in the Nat. Archives for that period clearly demonstrate that they did not know much about coin collecting.

7over8

Grandma remembers getting gold coins as gifts for thier wedding, instead of paper money. Nice newly minted ones, of course, they were a gift.

$10 eagles was the common gift. Over $500 face deposited with thier local bank a few days after thier wedding day in 1932.

When asked if they had received any nice new double eagles.....$20's (aaah the rare late dates!!!)...........the response was........that was too much money to expect for a gift. Never received one.

airedale

My mother told me that in my grand parents tavern they would, on rare occasion, find a $5. gold coin in the Juke Box someone with too much kool-aid would put in in place of a nickel.

RWB

Interesting - keep them coming!

GAT

My maternal grandfather was from Frankfurt-on-Oder, Germany. Being European and aware of the great inflation there in the 20s he didn't trust banks. As a result when the depression hit he owned 3 houses in Dallas and had $30,000 in gold and silver coins under the mattress. He didn't turn anything in and never suffered or wanted until his dying day in 1941.

ricko

Great stories.... My family never had any gold coins.... I do have some darkside silver my Father had as a mini-collection. I have heard many stories of burying gold or hiding it in walls - but have yet to find any. Cheers, RickO

asin

When my mother and her brother were children, the rag man use to come around with his cart and buy bundles of rags from people on the street. My mother and her brother use to take the bundles of rags and put some pebbles inside to cheat the rag man. When the rag man got wise to this, he opened up the bundle one day and opened up the bundle with the pebbles inside and gave my mother and her brother both backhands and took the rags without paying. Also, they use to walk the railroad tracks to pick up any little lumps of coal that fell out of the coal car and bring home to stick into the coal stove to keep warm. Additionally, I believe it use to cost 5 cents to take the ferry into Boston. I guess people never change. We all get into mischief once in a while. They use to get an orange in their Christmas stocking and that was a big deal. Talk about poor. To this day, they always worry about another depression coming. They always say save some money for a cold. cold day.

oreville

Go and watch the Cinderella Man starring Russell Crowe. One of the best visual pictures of a family suffering through the Great Depression.

I never forgot the scene in which the wood from a picket fence was stripped to put wood in the stove to help keep the family from freezing at night.

Shamika

Great stories guys.

asin

bump come on stories you guys

GoldenEyeNumismatics

This is not a personal story--it's something a local coin club member told me.

This member is about 55-60 years old. His father was a in a wealthy family growing up, and whenever his father needed money (to go buy candy, cloths, etc) he would go to a dresser in the master bedroom, where the top drawer was a cache of gold coins-$1-$20. This coin club member asked his father if he ever remembered any of the coins he had spent. Sure, he remembered the $20 Liberty's and Saints, Indians, etc--no particular dates though. The coin club member then asked his father if he remembered anything unusual. Sure! His father responded. He remembered how a cashier struggled to make change after spending a $4 gold piece.

Ouch!

Earendil

"Ouch" is right... there went tens of thousands of dollars at the minimum.