You Could Have Served 10 Years in Prison For Investing In This But It's Legal Now!

Did you know that investing in enough gold in the U.S. was illegal, punished by major fines and up to 10 years in jail! In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an extreme executive order to try to save the economy that changed gold and precious metals investing forever. It forced the American people to sell their gold to the government for a fixed price.

Perhaps more importantly It also made owning more than about $100 (in 1933 dollars) of gold coins or bullion for personal use or investment illegal. This order wasn’t repealed until more than 40 years later in 1974 when the gold standard was also torn down!

The order was devastating for personal investors looking for safe haven in precious metals, but it was quite effective. The Federal Reserve got enough gold from the public to continue its innovative new strategy: quantitative easing. If you didn’t pay much attention to the 2020 market crash, you may not have heard of this term. Essentially, quantitative easing is just the Fed flooding the market with as much cash as it reasonably can to hold the market up. 

Gold and precious metals investing has changed exponentially in the past 50 years and the rate of change seems to only now be increasing in the past few years. Until relatively recently, gold was rarely considered a viable personal investment, but not because gold itself was lacking in any way.

Why Invest in Gold and Precious Metals Now?

Gold is probably the most popular investment in all of human history and for good reason. It is a great mode of exchange, sure, but that’s far from its only use. It also can be the perfect investment right now for 2 main reasons. The first is that it is a fantastic safe haven asset and many experts still expect a recession soon. So it's safe, but will it be profitable? Well, it seems likely because worldwide gold demand absolutely rocketed in 2022 from about 4,012 to 4,740 metric tons over the year. That’s almost 20% in a single year!

Learn more about the best precious metals trading platforms and claim free info-books on getting the best out of gold in Benzinga’s Precious Metals Hub.

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