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GOLD RESERVE ACT

GOLD RESERVE ACT. In response to the GREAT DEPRESSION, and at the request of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress passed the Gold Reserve Act on 30 January 1934; the measure nationalized all gold by ordering the Federal Reserve banks to turn over their supply to the U.S. Treasury. In return the banks received gold certificates to be used as reserves against deposits and Federal Reserve notes. The act also authorized the president to devalue the gold dollar so that it would have no more than 60 percent of its existing weight. Under this authority the president, on 31 January 1934, fixed the value of the gold dollar at 59.06 cents.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Friedman, Milton, and Anna Jacobson Schwartz. A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963.

Erik McKinley Eriksson/A. G.

See also Banking: Banking Crisis of 1933; Federal Reserve System; Gold Exchange; Gold Standard; Hard Money.