Gold ban
A gold ban means a private ban on trading and ownership of the precious metal gold . A government stipulates by law that private gold holdings must be surrendered to state acceptance points and exchanged for local currency .
execution
If there is a ban on the possession of gold, private individuals must surrender their gold possession ( coins , bars , nuggets , certificates ) to state acceptance points and receive compensation in the local currency . They are usually only allowed to own gold in the form of jewelry and coin collections up to a legally stipulated value limit. For example, in the United States in 1933, this limit was $ 100. There are often exceptions for industries in which the precious metal is used, such as jewelers, artisans and dentists. In the Third Reich there was - in addition to the ban on private ownership - also a ban on commercial gold ownership.
A possession ban is usually issued by governments when states are in a currency crisis . The reasons for a currency crisis can be found in poor macroeconomic fundamentals (e.g. high national debt ), so that a fixed exchange rate is drastically overvalued. Investors expect a correction of the parity rate in the long term and bring about the outbreak of the crisis with their “ speculation against the currency”. Because they expect strong devaluation, they avoid the uncertain currency and invest in precious metals and supposedly safe currencies (“ capital flight ”). To support the currency, governments enact laws and regulations that aim to capture and confiscate precious metals (gold, silver , platinum ) and foreign exchange. The gold delivery obligation also serves to finance vital imports with the delivered gold.
The gold ban is usually associated with criminal or regulatory sanctions threats. As interference with the fundamental right to property, prohibitions of possession are subject to special legality requirements . As a rule, they are not very effective as many private individuals do not disclose or do not deliver their gold holdings. Where gold ownership is prohibited, either gold smuggling flourishes, which supplies the black markets - for a corresponding premium - or the citizens buy the gold abroad.
history
Antiquity
In history there have been prohibitions and restrictions on private gold and silver ownership in all social systems , from classical antiquity through medieval feudal society to the socialist states and developing countries of modern times . They existed not only in totalitarian dictatorships , but also in democratic countries .
In ancient Egypt , according to a royal inscription from the 19th dynasty (1292–1186 BC), private ownership of gold was forbidden because gold was considered a royal metal (flesh of the gods). It was administered by the sanctuaries and only pharaohs and priests wore it as representatives of the gods on earth in the practice of their religion.
In Sparta the population was not allowed to participate in business life. The possession of gold and silver was forbidden for a long time, which was strictly controlled by house searches. As by Lysander after 404 BC When large amounts of tribute came to Sparta in the 3rd century BC , private possession of precious metal was punished by the death penalty . The dating of the gold and silver money ban in Sparta is controversial. From the traditions of Xenophon , Plutarch and Iustinus it is known that Lycurgus was the first time around 800 BC. BC is said to have forbidden the possession of gold and silver coins . According to current research, the 'Lycurgian prohibition' probably dates from the period between 550 and 520 BC. The state did not begin to own its own coins until around 300 BC. To mint. However, the ban had long since been circumvented and was soon expired.
In the Roman Empire , credit conditions were disrupted as a result of the civil wars . Gaius Iulius Caesar tried to solve the debt crisis through reforms. He first waived the interest and ordered that in disputes arbitrators should assess the debtors' assets. Since many were hoarding their money, Caesar forbade in 49 BC. According to Cassius Dio , that any person is allowed to own more than 15,000 denarii (= 60,000 sesterce ) in gold or silver. His measures proved inadequate because they could not be carried out without control.
middle Ages
In the Empire of China , the central government began to circulate monopolized official state banknotes in 1024 . They were backed by imperial gold and silver and were able to establish themselves as the most important means of payment in the 12th century . The Mongolian ruler Kublai Khan , Emperor of China and founder of the Yuan Dynasty , abolished precious metal backing in 1273, thereby introducing the world's first fiat currency . The possession of gold and silver was forbidden, both metals had to be completely handed over to the government. Excessive banknote pressure repeatedly led to considerable inflation , which in 1287 and 1309 could only be countered with a currency reform .
Tried in the late 13th century King Gaykhatu of Persia , the extravagant by his lifestyle and by rinderpest emptied state coffers by the emission to fill Fiat money again. On August 13, 1294, he announced that anyone who did not accept the new paper money would be punished with death. Privately owned gold and silver should be given to the state. The aim of the Iranian paper money issuance, as was the case in China under Kublai Khan, was to transfer all of the country's precious metal to the then cash-stripped state treasury and in this way to secure complete political and economic independence for the government. Hardly any of the subjects had a chance of ever getting back the precious metal that had been handed over to the Reich Treasury for paper money. The experiment was discontinued after two months and was a total failure. Trade came to a standstill and riots broke out in the bazaars . The king had no choice but to withdraw his proclamation. He was murdered shortly afterwards.
The devaluation of paper money in China continued during the Ming Dynasty , which is why Emperor Hongwu again forbade the possession of gold and silver in 1375. Banknote reprinting was suspended in 1450 and only resumed a year before the fall of the dynasty in 1643. Because of the traditional instability of the state currency , more important transactions were mostly processed through their own private payment systems. The instability was mainly due to the lack of convertibility, that is, the value of paper money was always subject to coercive measures, the regulation and manipulation of the state and not economic principles.
Early modern age
In France in 1720 was under John Law , general controller of the finances of King Louis XV. who banned private ownership of gold. Law took the view that uncovered banknotes could increase the state's wealth. It was then that paper money was first used on a large scale. Precious metals were recognized as money by the population, but banknotes were not. Consequently, on February 27, 1720, Law issued an edict prohibiting private ownership of more than 500 livres of gold and silver. From now on, banknotes were the only legal tender. The considerable increase in the amount of money in paper money and the gradual loss of confidence in the new artificial currency led to inflation. Investors exchanged the paper money for stocks, real estate, and land, the prices of which rose (see Mississippi Bubble ). The speculative bubble burst, the value of the investments fell just as quickly as the confidence in paper money. The lack of control over paper money issuance soon led to banknotes and banks being abolished in November 1720 and France reverting to the coin standard.
During the French Revolution from 1789 assignats (= paper money) and token coins were suddenly no longer redeemed in full value or not at all in curant coins and kept in circulation at the compulsory rate. Over time, more and more assignats were brought into circulation, causing them to lose a lot of their value, which was also due to general political instability. The decline in the value of assignats was initially expressed in the agio that was paid on gold and silver coins. The government therefore tried to keep the course of paper money by banning the agiotage . For the common citizen it was forbidden to pay or trade with gold or silver money with a high penalty. Rather, it should be delivered to the state in exchange for assignats in order to force the acceptance of paper money as a general means of payment.
On April 11, 1793, an ordinance was issued in Paris prohibiting the trade in gold and silver coins. On August 1, 1793, severe threats of punishment for refusing to accept assignats were issued. The penalties were tightened more and more in further enactments, finally up to the death penalty by the guillotine . Anyone who broke these laws was declared an enemy of the republic. In April 1795 the value of assignats fell to eight percent. As a result, many merchants refused to accept paper money, which impoverished the workers who were paid in assignats. On March 18, 1796, the assignats were withdrawn from circulation.
20th century
overview
Gold bans were imposed in some democratic countries in the 20th century. Examples of this are the Weimar Republic in the interwar period in 1923, the USA in 1933 and France in 1936, and in the post-war period India in 1963 and Great Britain in 1966. As recently as 1973, private gold ownership was affected by restrictions in over 120 countries around the world . In connection with the end of the Bretton Woods system , which was determined by the gold-backed US dollar as the reserve currency , most of the restrictions were lifted. The gold bans in many socialist countries remained in place. They were only overridden two decades later with the economic collapse of the Eastern Bloc .
In the Soviet Union , the possession, buying and selling of gold bars and coins was banned by private individuals since 1918. The circulation of all precious metals in every form and type was under strict state control. Violations could face severe penalties, including the death penalty . Almost all private coin collections were confiscated by the socialist government and distributed to the nationalized museums. Some collections could be brought abroad, others were stolen or lost. The employee of the Moscow Art Theater AV Gavrilow wrote in his diary: “August 24, 1939. Last week house searches were carried out on many actors and employees of the theater - silver coins were confiscated. At the old usher GF Leontjew, who collected coins, around 100 silver rubles and foreign currency were found. He was shot - the newspapers wrote about it. Some are in jail. ”It was not until 1987, during the period of perestroika , that the government lifted most of the restrictions on private individuals.
In Poland , the Sejm passed a law on October 28, 1950 prohibiting the possession of foreign currencies, gold coins, gold and platinum and increasing the penalties for some foreign exchange offenses. The government ordered the immediate delivery of the precious metals and their immediate exchange at the official rate in zloty . Despite the threat of severe penalties, this measure was unsuccessful and was mostly ignored by the population. The ban remained in force for 38 years until March 15, 1989. In retrospect, a Polish legal journal wrote in January 1989: "It will probably be difficult to find a legal act in our legislation (...) that has been violated, disregarded or ignored as often as this one."
In the People's Republic of China , the government began confiscating gold and silver dollars in 1949. It passed a law prohibiting domestic citizens from owning gold (excluding jewelry), silver dollars, and foreign currency. All precious metals and foreign exchange had to be sold to the Chinese People's Bank . From September 1, 1982, private individuals were again allowed to purchase gold jewelry. In the same year the central bank began issuing the gold panda , a gold coin for investment purposes. On June 15, 1983, the state legalized private gold and silver ownership. The trade in precious metals remained forbidden for the population. With the opening of the Shanghai Gold Exchange on October 30, 2002, the trade ban for private investors was lifted.
Germany 1923 to 1955
Prohibition in the Weimar Republic
At the height of the German inflation from 1914 to 1923 , the issued national government a number of laws and regulations, which is primarily a suppression of speculation with foreign currency and (forced) detection and recovery of precious metals and foreign exchange in the domestic as well as of assets abroad aimed. Under the government of Reich Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno ( independent ) and under the influence of the catastrophic collapse of the currency, a series of ordinances were issued that restricted trading in gold and foreign exchange. Infringements were punished, the criminalized foreign currency could be confiscated.
The ordinance based on the Emergency Act (measures against value speculation) of May 8, 1923 allowed the Reichsbank to proclaim precious metals ( gold , silver , platinum , platinum metals ) and foreign currencies from private ownership for the German Reich.
The ordinance on futures transactions and trading in dollar notes at the standard rate of July 3, 1923 prohibited futures transactions in means of payment or claims in foreign currencies, in precious metals and in domestic and foreign securities against Reichsmarks or securities denominated in Reichsmarks. Transactions that violated this prohibition were void.
The foreign exchange ordinance based on Art. 48 II WRV was initially continued under the first Stresemann cabinet . With the ordinance on the delivery of foreign assets of Reich President Friedrich Ebert ( SPD ) of August 25, 1923, an already existing compulsory loan to prevent the hoarding of precious metals and foreign exchange was supplemented by an obligation to surrender gold, silver and foreign exchange from private property. The delivery had to take place within three weeks. The deadline was later extended several times. The delivery obligation did not exist if the amount to be delivered did not exceed 10 gold marks. Violation of the provisions could result in imprisonment, fines and administrative penalties.
This was followed on September 7, 1923 by an ordinance on the recording of foreign currency, which authorized a commissioner to be appointed by the Reich government to request information, summons, confiscation of property and to impose draconian penalties. The office of commissioner for foreign exchange registration was transferred to Hermann Fellinger (1884–1957), Ministerialrat in the Prussian Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The persons entitled to dispose of the goods covered by the ordinance were obliged to surrender all foreign means of payment, claims and precious metals to the Reich within the framework of economic justifiability. Infringements could result in imprisonment of up to ten years in prison , unlimited fines, confiscation of the entire property and fines of up to 10,000 gold marks. In addition to the sentence, it could be ordered that the conviction be made public at the guilty’s expense.
Impact and Repeal
The ordinance of September 7, 1923 set the basic rights of Art. 115 WRV (inviolability of the home), Art. 117 WRV (letter, post, telegraph and telephone secrecy) and Art. 153 WRV (property guarantee) enshrined in the Weimar Constitution inoperative. There were raids police in cafes and restaurants, where the visitors were forced to open their purses. Foreign currencies were immediately seized.
On September 18, 1923, at the request of the Commissioner for Foreign Exchange Registration , the Berlin police carried out a large-scale search of restaurants and cafés in Friedrichstadt and West Berlin. The Berliner Tageblatt wrote a day later: “In general, the raid went off smoothly. Arrests did not occur because the surprised currency owners did not even attempt a resistance - incidentally pointless - in addition to dollars and British pounds, coins from almost all European countries were confiscated. "
These raids had to be organized not only in Berlin, but in all major German cities. Hans Ostwald wrote in 1931 in “Sittengeschichte der Inflation”: “There was constant news of raids from the German provinces. For example, it was very productive. B. a raid in Leipzig on September 23, 1923. It also brought all kinds of foreigners, foreign exchange dealers and people without ID to the daylight and to the police headquarters. "
The police crossed the markets of German cities every day to find speculators - but mostly without success. The audiences of banks and savings banks were also searched for gold and foreign exchange. There were no extensive house searches due to the instability of the Weimar Republic during this time. Many private individuals did not declare their stocks of precious metals or precious metals or did not deliver them. There were ways and means for wealth owners to hide capital or to store it abroad. The ordinance on recording foreign exchange of September 7, 1923 remained in force until October 31, 1924.
On March 25, 1925, the Reichsgericht declared in its judgment that the obligation to deliver gold, silver and foreign currency of August 25, 1923 was conceptually very close to expropriation. Therefore, this obligation is to be equated with expropriation, and Art. 153 (2) WRV applies accordingly. Paragraph 2 contains an asset guarantee, because it guarantees the citizen adequate compensation in the event of expropriation through state sovereignty.
Towards the end of 1924, most of the emergency foreign exchange regulations of the inflationary period were repealed and a completely new foreign exchange regulation was created. This foreign exchange ordinance of November 8, 1924 still contained significant restrictions that were intended to protect the German currency. On May 1, 1926, the foreign exchange trading ban of July 3, 1923 (in the version of November 8, 1924) was revoked. On March 6, 1931, Reich President Paul von Hindenburg (independent) also repealed the ordinance on the delivery of foreign property of August 25, 1923. After eight years of interruption, private ownership of gold and silver was permitted again.
Renewed restrictions
A few months after the ban was lifted, private gold and foreign exchange ownership was again affected by restrictions. Due to the global economic crisis and repayment demands from international lenders, the presidential government under Heinrich Brüning ( center ) restricted the free movement of capital. In 1931 it issued several ordinances on the compulsory foreign exchange management and introduced a Reich flight tax . In addition, it was forced to adopt a drastic austerity policy and increased income tax. With these measures it triggered a strong flight of capital abroad. Wealthy emigrants who were in danger of defaulting as taxpayers should be deterred from their plans by the Reichsfluchtsteuer.
Starting with the ordinance against capital and tax evasion of July 18, 1931 up to the law against the betrayal of the German economy of June 12, 1933, the possession of foreign currency and gold (out-of-course gold coins, fine gold and alloyed gold) was reduced by a The obligation to notify and the forced sale to the Reichsbank are limited. Curable gold coins were not affected.
For the first time, the regulation against capital flight of July 21, 1931 stipulated an obligation to offer and deliver, but only for values of more than RM 20,000 (today's purchasing power EUR 79,670) that were acquired after July 12, 1931. However, under the pressure of increasing foreign exchange difficulties, the Reich government soon lifted this stipulation.
In the ordinance of August 29, 1931, the exemption limit was lowered to RM 1,000 (in today's purchasing power EUR 3,980) and in the ordinance of October 2, 1931, the limit was reduced to RM 200 (EUR 800 in today's purchasing power) in the latter case with the stipulation that all values of more than RM 200 that private individuals had acquired after July 12, 1931, must be offered to the Reichsbank or a credit institution authorized by it and sold on request.
Ban on private property during the National Socialist era
In April 1936 Hermann Göring was appointed commissar for raw materials and foreign exchange and in October 1936 commissioner for the four-year plan . He was responsible for the implementation of measures that should lead to an improvement in the foreign exchange situation in the German Reich . On October 28, 1936, Göring ordered gold, foreign means of payment and claims in foreign currency to be delivered by November 30 of that year. Gold within the meaning of this law was gold coins that were out of course, fine gold and alloyed gold, raw or as a semi-finished product, but not plaque , old and broken gold.
On December 1, 1936, Goering passed the law against economic sabotage, which threatened the death penalty for damaging the German economy by shifting foreign currency. The law was directed against the flight of capital abroad and the leaving of assets abroad. All German capital owners were hereby called upon to return their foreign assets to Germany under threat of the death penalty. The obligation to deliver was supported by the law on granting impunity for foreign currency violations of December 15, 1936. The granting of impunity until January 31, 1937 prompted many private individuals to sell the gold and foreign exchange holdings they had previously held back to the Reichsbank.
On March 13, 1938, Austria was annexed to National Socialist Germany , officially implemented by the law on the reunification of Austria with the German Reich. Just two months later, on 25 May 1938 was in Reichsgesetzblatt the demonetization of the federal gold coins with a nominal value of 100 shillings and 25 shillings and the silver token coins in the denomination of five shillings and two shillings in the country Austria has. On July 16, 1938, the ordinance on the suspension of German Reich gold coins for 10 and 20 marks followed. The Reichs- und Landeskassen accepted the coins in payment at their face value until August 15, 1938.
With the ordinance on the delivery of obsolete domestic and foreign gold coins of July 16, 1938, all gold coins of the German Reich and Austria had to be sold to the Reichsbank by September 1, 1938. The obligation to offer and deliver officially served "to standardize the law that was previously in force in the old Reich and in Austria and to make the gold contained in the coins usable for the German economy." In reality, the gold was mainly used for external financing of armaments relieved the low gold reserves of the Reichsbank.
The obligation to offer and deliver only applied to gold, which was precisely defined in the Foreign Exchange Management Act, but not to privately owned gold jewelery, which never had to be sold in Germany. An exception was made for the Jewish population. According to the ordinance of the Commissioner for the Four-Year Plan Hermann Göring of February 21, 1939, all Jews had to deliver the gold, platinum or silver objects in their possession as well as precious stones and pearls to the buying points set up by the Reich within two weeks. The deadline for submission was later extended to March 31, 1939. The purchase agency should evaluate and pay compensation. The basis for this law was the ordinance on the registration of property of Jews of April 26, 1938.
From 1938, German foreign exchange protection commands were active in Austria, the Sudetenland and, during World War II, in Poland and the occupied western states to confiscate private foreign exchange, shares, gold and diamonds from private property that had been declared as notifiable or to force them to be bought. These commands were manned by officials from the customs investigation offices of the Reich Finance Administration and managed by the Foreign Exchange Investigation Office , which was affiliated to the Secret State Police Office under Reinhard Heydrich .
Prohibition of commercial ownership
On September 13, 1939, a few days after the outbreak of World War II, three orders from the Reich Office for Precious Metals resulted in a complete confiscation of precious metals owned by commercial companies. The Reich Office for Precious Metals was established on July 12, 1935, at that time still as a monitoring office for precious metals, and was subordinate to the Reich Ministry of Economics .
Orders Nos. 18 and 19 imposed a duty to report and a prohibition of disposal for platinum and platinum metals ( palladium , rhodium , ruthenium , iridium and osmium ) as well as for silver, and order number 20 introduced a confiscation of gold. This applied to fine precious metals, semi-finished products and cutting materials as well as finished products from spinnerets made of a gold-platinum alloy, as used in the chemical fiber industry, to jewelry.
Finished goods made of gold, insofar as they were owned by retailers, were not allowed to be sold or otherwise used in any way without the approval of the Reich Office for Precious Metals. From September 14, 1939, they had to be offered to the Reichsbank within 10 days and sold and transferred on request. Finished goods wholly or partially made of gold with a sales value of over 300 Reichsmarks for the individual item could only be given to the consumer on presentation of a valid identification card . Basically, the three orders aimed at a complete control of the state over all business and internal transactions.
Discontinuation of gold and silver coins
On August 25, 1923, President Friedrich Ebert (SPD) announced the obligation to surrender gold coins for the first time , which would last for eight years. On August 16, 1938, the suspension of all gold coins in the German Reich was completed. They were no longer legal tender and the Reichsbank no longer accepted them as part of payment. Their possession was - apart from a few collector's copies - declared illegal again and was under threat of punishment. On January 1, 1940, the last silver coins of the German Reich were suspended. In 1945, the victorious powers of the Second World War imposed an obligation to submit the goods in Germany, which was only suspended ten years later. Since August 1914, however, gold coins had long since disappeared from circulation and were kept in many families - alongside silver coins - as a reminder of a better time.
| Suspension |
Surname |
Face value |
Reichsgesetzblatt |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 1, 1900 | Gold coins | 5 marks | RGBl. 1900, p. 253 |
| January 1, 1902 | Silver coins | 20 pfennigs | RGBl. 1901, p. 486 |
| October 1, 1908 | Silver coins | 50 pfennigs | RGBl. 1908, p. 464 |
| January 1, 1921 | Silver coins | ½, 1, 2, 3 and 5 marks | RGBl. 1920, p. 521 |
| October 1, 1934 | Silver coins | 3 marks and 3 RM | RGBl. I 1934, p. 595 |
| April 1, 1937 | Silver coins | 1 mark, 1 RM and 5 RM | RGBl. I 1936, p. 1156 |
| August 16, 1938 | Gold coins | 10 and 20 marks | RGBl. I 1938, p. 901 |
| January 1, 1940 | Silver coins | 2 RM | RGBl. I 1939, p. 2234 |
Prohibition by the occupying powers
After the end of the Second World War, the occupying powers established the Allied Control Council as the highest government authority in Germany. On September 20, 1945, the Control Council issued Proclamation No. 2 under the title “Additional claims made to Germany”, in which an absolute ban on foreign assets for all persons residing or doing business in Germany imposed and the delivery of gold , Silver and platinum as well as all foreign banknotes and coins was demanded from the Allies (Section V No. 14 and 15).
The foreign exchange and precious metals delivered were later, insofar as they appeared usable to the occupation authorities, to be collected from the Reichsbanks ( state central banks ) acting as custodians for the occupying power , without any other legal reason being given than that of a reparation payment due to actual military force. This forcible removal found its [subsequent] legal expression in Article 1 No. 1 (b) of Law No. 63 of the Allied High Commission of August 31, 1951.
The ban on private ownership of precious metals was not very effective. Gold and silver coins were no longer in regular circulation after the war; they were suspended and confiscated until January 1, 1940. The few private individuals who were still in possession of precious metals ignored the obligation to hand them over. Proclamation No. 2 was suspended for the Federal Republic of Germany by Article 2 of Law No. A-37 of the Allied High Commission of May 5, 1955 (OJ AHK p. 3267) and for the GDR by resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR on the dissolution of the High Commission of the Soviet Union in Germany on September 20, 1955. After 32 years, the private ownership of gold in Germany was no longer subject to any restrictions or prohibitions.
France 1936 to 1937
In France, on May 3, 1936, the Popular Front, led by the socialist Léon Blum ( SFIO ), won the parliamentary elections. Because many investors feared socialist experiments, a mass exodus from the French franc began. On September 25, 1936, the Banque de France suspended its obligation to redeem gold for its notes and devalued the currency.
To stop the outflow of gold and foreign currency, the government passed the Currency Act of October 1, 1936. The new law renounced a rigid relationship to gold. Instead, an elastic ratio of 49 milligrams 900/1000 fine was chosen as the upper limit and 43 milligrams 900/1000 fine as the lower limit, which corresponded to a devaluation of 25.19 percent and 34.35 percent respectively.
Article IV of the law imposed a compulsory assignment of foreign currency, foreign securities and gold to the currency stabilization fund (Fond de stabilization des changes). Private individuals had to sell their gold holdings, if they exceeded 200 grams of fine gold and were not used for industrial or commercial purposes, either to the central bank for the benefit of the fund until November 1, 1936 , at the old price, or they had to keep their gold until November 15, 1936 Register the treasury and pay a capital appreciation tax of 100 percent.
Since the gold offers and registrations remained modest - in particular the stocks held abroad did not return for the most part - the government was forced to step backwards. In mid-December 1936, the period for sale or registration was initially extended to February 1, 1937. At the same time, the government offered the gold owners a 3.5 percent bond with a three-year term and a redemption rate of 140.
This concession was not enough for the gold owners. The redemption rate was about the same as the increase in value in gold, but the interest rate appeared inadequate, and the bond was not listed on the Paris stock exchange . On July 1, 1937, the government under Prime Minister Camille Chautemps ( Parti radical ) repealed the provisions of the Monetary Act of October 1, 1936 on the gold ban.
Great Britain 1966 to 1971
Due to the increase in gold consumption for industrial purposes and the decrease in the state's gold reserves, the British Labor government under Prime Minister Harold Wilson passed a law on April 27, 1966 that prohibited the minting of gold medals and commemorative coins. The only exemptions from this ban were products for export and for winners of sporting events.
In addition, any British citizen was prohibited from buying gold coins or continuing to own more than four gold coins. He was to deliver all the remaining coins to the Bank of England , which they needed to cover the pound sterling . Coins minted before 1838 were an exception. Collectors were able to obtain a special permit from the central bank.
The ban came at a time when the population was increasingly investing in gold coins. In anticipation of the introduction of the decimal system as the coinage system on February 15, 1971, interest in the collection of all types of British coins increased. The import of gold coins rose sharply. In 1960 gold coins worth 62,000 pounds sterling were introduced, in 1965 the value was 8,582,000 pounds sterling.
The sales of the private gold dealers fell after the property ban on the domestic market. On April 1, 1971, the government under the Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath suspended the so-called Exchange Control (Gold Coins Exemption) Order of 1966.
India 1963 to 1990
The Indian government under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru has controlled the gold market since 1947, the end of British colonial rule, and controlled the exports and imports as well as the distribution, production, sale and possession of gold. After the Indo-China border war in the fall of 1962 and the loss of foreign exchange reserves, the government passed several laws and regulations to improve the foreign exchange situation.
The threat at the border had shown a growing willingness to make sacrifices among the people. Donations of money, gold and jewelry were estimated at over one billion Indian rupees . The defense bonds launched in November 1962 by the Reserve Bank of India and a new gold bond, which was issued at 6.5 percent with a 15-year term, did not, however, bring the desired success.
On January 9, 1963, Treasury Secretary Morarji Desai issued an Emergency Ordinance (Gold Control Act) requiring individuals, societies and religious institutions to register their gold holdings. The only exception was jewelry. The possession of gold was declared illegal in principle. Exceptions had to be approved separately. In the future, gold jewelry was only allowed to make up 14 carats , which corresponded to a fineness of 585 thousandths, while previously the usual Indian gold jewelry had a fineness of 900 thousandths. Only 50 grams of gold (or 20 grams for young people) that had not been made into jewelry was free.
With this gold law, the Indian government attempted both to uncover the hoarded gold reserves and to put a stop to gold smuggling, which had secretly carried considerable amounts of foreign currency out of the country for many years. On June 6, 1990, the government under Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh passed the Gold (Control) Repeal Act, which repealed the 1963 Act (as amended on September 1, 1968).
USA 1933 to 1974
Prohibition of possession in Germany
On March 6, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt prohibited banks from paying out gold and trading foreign currency during the bank holidays . Three days later, the Emergency Banking Act allowed the president to influence gold and foreign exchange trading. With these powers, the government wanted to prevent the withdrawal of gold from the USA. In the first months of 1933, many bank customers had taken their gold reserves out of the lockers and hoarded them privately or brought them to Europe.
On April 5, 1933, the President signed Executive Order 6102 prohibiting private ownership of gold in the United States from May 1, 1933: “Modified by the power of attorney given to me under Section 5 (b) of the October 6, 1917 Act I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, proclaim, through Section 2 of the Act of March 9, 1933, entitled "Measures to Combat Bank Distress and Other Purposes," in which Congress declared a serious state of emergency, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, as President of the United States of America that the national emergency still exists and according to the ordinance, the ban on hoarding gold coins, gold bars and gold certificates by persons, societies, associations and firms within the continental United States comes into force. "
All private gold (coins, bars and certificates) had to be handed in to state acceptance points within 14 days at the fixed gold price of US $ 20.67 per troy ounce. Exceptions were gold, which was needed for industrial purposes, arts or crafts, as well as gold coins and certificates, which did not exceed the value of 100 US dollars (inflation-adjusted US $ 1,969.17). The prohibition of possession was limited to the domestic market; gold holdings abroad were not affected.
Gold owners who voluntarily gave up their precious metal received compensation. If, on the other hand, the state discovered gold during an ordered search, it expropriated it without compensation. Bank safes and lockers were a preferred target for searches . They were sealed and could only be opened in the presence of an Internal Revenue Service official . The government knew of the owners through banking and insurance records.
Violation of this regulation could result in a fine of up to $ 10,000 (adjusted for inflation: $ 196,917) or a prison sentence of up to 10 years, or both. By setting the exemption limit of 100 dollars, which corresponded to about 5 troy ounces of gold, most of the population was not affected by the ban. That is why there was hardly any resistance to the confiscation . On January 31, 1934, the government raised the price of gold to $ 35 per troy ounce. The citizens who obeyed the order missed an appreciation gain of 69 percent. However, only a part of the population delivered their gold - according to some estimates, around a third.
Prohibition of possession abroad
In order to stop the outflow of gold from the USA, President Dwight D. Eisenhower extended on January 14, 1961 with Executive Order 10905 the ban on private gold ownership, which had previously been restricted to the domestic market, to include gold holdings held by US citizens abroad. All US citizens and companies were prohibited from holding gold stocks or securities redeemable for gold (gold certificates) in foreign depots and from participating in gold trading. By June 1, 1961, all gold deposits had to be closed. Violations of this ban could face heavy fines of up to US $ 10,000 or prison terms of up to ten years. Rare gold coins were exempt from this ban.
The government emphasized that the jurisdiction of the USA also "applies to all companies, partnerships, organizations etc. registered or operating wherever that belong directly or indirectly to US citizens or are controlled by them through equity participation or otherwise". This meant that, for example, Ford Germany or Opel were not allowed to own gold, even though German law allowed it. Neither the West German federal government nor the governments in France or Great Britain protested against this global claim to power because gold ownership seemed unimportant.
Private gold trading continued, be it legal, illegal or tolerated, in the years that followed. Increasingly, citizens made use of the opportunity to import gold coins minted before 1933 from abroad without restriction. On July 20, 1962, President John F. Kennedy banned the possession of these gold coins abroad, as well as their import into the United States, with Executive Order 11037 . All US citizens living abroad should return the gold coins in their possession to the US by January 1, 1963. According to the government's statement, this measure was necessary to counter the increasing counterfeiting and re-minting of American gold coins.
Gold coin prices rose in the US after legal imports were banned. For example, the St. Gaudens Double Eagle ($ 20 piece), which had a gold value of $ 33.86 in 1962, was sold for a price of $ 52.50 to $ 55.00 in stores at the end of March 1966, which meant a premium from 55 to 62 percent. This rate was not far from what was paid on the black market, where the same piece was priced at around $ 63.
The regulation did not achieve the desired effect, but achieved exactly the opposite. It turned smuggling on the Canadian and Mexican borders and air transport into a new, lucrative business. At the same time it led to a flight of capital through the unlicensed purchase of these coins abroad. The 1933 gold ban lasted for 41 years until it was lifted by President Gerald Ford on December 31, 1974 by Executive Order 11825 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Academy of Sciences in Göttingen: News from the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen from 1961. Philological-historical class. Commissionsverlag der Dieterich'schen Verlagsbuchhandlung, Göttingen 1961, p. 170, edition 8
- ^ Bavarian Numismatic Society: Yearbook for Numismatics and Monetary History. Self-published by the Bavarian Numismatic Society, Munich 1998, p. 209, volume 47
- ^ Frank Beyer: Monetary Policy in the Roman Empire. From the currency reform of Augustus to Septimius Severus. Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1995, p. 33, ISBN 3824402386
- ↑ Michael Weiers (ed.): The Mongols: Contributions to their history and culture. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1986, p. 272, ISBN 3534035798
- ^ Rene Grousset: Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. 1939, p. 377
- ^ Glyn Davies: A history of money: from ancient times to the present day. University of Wales Press, 2002, p. 183
- ↑ Max Weber: The business ethics of the world religions. Confucianism and Taoism. Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen 1991, p. 35, ISBN 3161456262
- ↑ Reiner Franke: The development of the (loan) interest rate in France. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1996, p. 114 ff., ISBN 3428086015
- ^ Wolfgang Lautemann: American and French Revolution. Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag, Munich 1981, Vol. 4, ISBN 3762760829
- ^ Paul C. Martin: Gold beats money. Schweizer Verlagshaus, Zurich 1973, ISBN 3-7263-6153-7
- ↑ CoinsWeekly: Numismatics in Russia: Numismatics during socialism
- ↑ Announcement in the Law Gazette (Dziennik Ustaw): Dz.U. 1950, No. 50, Item 460
- ↑ Federal Institute for Eastern and International Studies: Reports from the Federal Institute for Eastern and International Studies. Cologne 1989, volume 30, p. 14
- ↑ Goldletter International: China Gold Report ( Memento from January 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 442 kB), November 2006
- ↑ Pan Asia Gold Exchange: Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Control of Gold and Silver ( Memento of April 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), June 15, 1983
- ↑ London Bullion Market Association: Prospects for the Chinese Private Gold Market (PDF; 147 kB), 2004
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1923, p. 275
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1923, p. 511
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1923, p. 833
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1923, p. 865
- ↑ Ruth Glatzer (Ed.): Berlin during the Weimar period. Panorama of a metropolis. Siedler Verlag, Berlin 2000, p. 122, ISBN 3886806359
- ↑ Hans Ostwald: Sittengeschichte der Inflation. Neufeld & Henius, Berlin 1931, p. 248
- ^ Adam Fergusson: When money dies: The nightmare of the Weimar collapse. William Kimber & Co. Ltd., London 1975, pp. 178-179, ISBN 0-7183-0214-1
- ^ Adam Fergusson: The end of money: Hyperinflation and its consequences for the people using the example of the Weimar Republic. FinanzBook Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 3-89879-627-2
- ↑ a b Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1924, p. 729
- ↑ RG 110, 344 ff.
- ^ DocumentArchiv.de: Weimar Constitution of August 11, 1919
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1926, p. 217
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1931, p. 32
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1931, p. 373
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1933, p. 360
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1931, p. 387
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1931, p. 461
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1931, p. 533
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1936, p. 930
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1936, p. 999
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1936, p. 1015
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1938, p. 237
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1938, p. 601
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1938, p. 901
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1938, p. 902
- ↑ Ralf Banken: The German Gold Reserve and Foreign Exchange Policy 1933-1939 . In: Peter Hampe, Albrecht Ritschl: New results on the NS upswing. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2003, p. 56
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1939, p. 282
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1939, p. 387
- ↑ Austrian National Library: RGBl. I 1938, p. 1709
- ↑ Ralf Banken: You can only take action against this with a free search - The work of the German foreign exchange protection commandos 1938 to 1944 . In: Hartmut Berghoff, Jürgen Kocka, Dieter Ziegler (eds.): Economy in the age of extremes. Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60156-9 , pp. 377-393.
- ↑ Ralf Banken: Precious Metals Shortage and Large Robbery: The Development of the German Precious Metals Sector in the “Third Reich” 1933–1945. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-05-004380-6
- ^ Verfassungen.de: Control Council Proclamation No. 2 - Additional demands made on Germany from September 20, 1945
- ^ Fritz Kränzlin: The protection of private property abroad: Festschrift for Hermann Janssen for his 60th birthday. Verlag Recht und Wirtschaft, Heidelberg 1958, p. 45
- ↑ Alois Stabinger: The French monetary policy from stabilization to the outbreak of the Second World War (1928-1939). A. Francke Verlag, Bern 1946
- ↑ Die Zeit: Time Lapse , May 6, 1966
- ↑ New Statesman: Commons Debates - 13 June 1966 - Exchange Control (Goldcoins) ( Memento from January 29, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
- ↑ 24carat.co.uk: Collecting and Investing in Gold Coins
- ^ Reserve Bank of India: Gold in the Indian Economic System (PDF; 48 kB), November 28, 1996
- ^ Karl J. Mayer: Between Crisis and War: France in the Foreign Economic Policy of the USA between the Great Depression and the Second World War. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1999, pp. 48-50, ISBN 3-515-07373-6
- ^ The American Presidency Project: Executive Order 6102
- ^ The Privateer: Executive Order 6102 ( Memento of February 9, 2003 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Die Zeit: Time Lapse , January 20, 1961
- ↑ Die Zeit: Hang on to gold, everything pushes to gold ... , January 12, 1962
- ↑ Reports and information. Austrian Research Institute for Economics and Politics, Vienna 1962, Volume 17.
- ↑ Die Zeit: Time Lapse , August 3, 1962
- ↑ Die Zeit: Gold as a last resort? , dated September 7, 1962
- ↑ metal. International magazine for technology and business. Metall-Verlag GmbH, Berlin 1966, volume 20
- ↑ USA Gold: Gold Confiscation (PDF; 286 kB)