US Treasury Claims Power to Seize Gold and Silver

Many American precious metals investors do not know that Franklin D Roosevelt, under Presidential Executive Order number 6102, confiscated all privately held Gold in the United States on April 5, 1933. It was actually illegal for US private citizens to own gold for a good part of the 20th century. Today Americans are free to invest in gold, silver in bullion and coins or in the form of stocks in mining companies. These investors may be under the impression that "this couldn't happen in 2005" - Well you may want to think again.

The United States Treasury Department has indicated that U.S. Government has the authority to prohibit the private possession of gold and silver coin and bullion by U.S. citizens during wartime, and, during wartime and declared emergencies, to freeze their ownership of shares of precious metals mining companies. This assertion was made by Sean M. Thornton, chief counsel for the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control in a letter to the Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA).

The government's authority comes from the Trading With the Enemy Act, which became law in 1917 during World War I and applies during declared wars, and from 1977's International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which can be applied at anytime. The Trading with the Enemy Act would allow the government to take possession of all gold and silver assets of American citizens and freeze the shares of any mining companies with a foreign ownership interest.

Having said all this, confiscating physical gold and silver from Americans won't be all that easy, as say freezing stock holdings may be.