QUESTION: I made a wager {that a} good friend was unsuitable that Roosevelt additionally confiscated silver. I by no means heard of that, solely gold. He mentioned I ought to write to you and you’ll resolve who wins.
Thanks
FD
ANSWER: Sorry, you lose. He will need to have been at certainly one of my conferences once we mentioned that if he advised you to ask me. Most individuals have by no means heard that Roosevelt additionally confiscated silver – not simply gold. On August 9th, 1934, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt applied the seizure of all silver located within the continental United States with Government Order 6814 – requiring the Supply of All Silver to the US for Coinage. This was the identical abuse of govt energy as Government Order 6102, which FDR signed on April 5th, 1933, “forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates throughout the continental United States” with some variations.
A key distinction right here with the silver Government Order 6814 excluded the seizure of all silver cash, whether or not overseas or home. On the similar time, Government Order 6102 solely exempted sure sorts of collectible or numismatic cash from seizure as a result of Teddy Roosevelt had been an historical coin collector and even J.P. Morgan. Franklin was a stamp collector.
In a well-known letter to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury L.M. Shaw, dated December 27, 1904, Teddy Roosevelt said, “I feel the state of our coinage is artistically of atrocious hideousness. Wouldn’t it be doable, with out asking permission of Congress, to make use of a person like [Augustus] Saint-Gaudens to offer us a coinage which might have some magnificence?” He noticed the traditional cash as magnificent artistic endeavors unprecedented in numismatic historical past. Teddy noticed the ancients as inspiration.
He had the $20 1907 gold struck in excessive aid with Roman numerals for the day. However fashionable machines couldn’t deal with such a work. Solely 11,250 have been struck earlier than being changed with the flat-relief design with common Arabic numbers.
There was a scarcity of silver as a result of individuals have been additionally hoarding silver after confiscating the gold. There have been no silver {dollars} minted after 1928. Solely when Roosevelt confiscated the silver in 1934 did we see 1934 silver {dollars} being struck once more.
