In April 1933, using emergency powers granted by the Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order (you can see it here) commanding US citizens to surrender their gold coins and bullion to the Federal Reserve system. The Fed paid the then-official price of $20.67 in Federal Reserve notes per gold ounce. After collecting the gold, the US government devalued the dollar, declaring the gold worth $35 per ounce of gold, earning itself a tidy profit.

When I talk about this episode in class, and use the word “confiscation”, some students think I must be exaggerating the imperiousness of the US government. But read on.

The coins were to be melted and the gold sent to Fort Knox. Roosevelt's advisors apparently thought that the confiscation was necessary to allow the Fed to devalue the dollar against gold and thereby to allow it to re-inflate the economy – although other countries managed to devalue and inflate without confiscating gold.

Did all US citizens comply with the order? Nearly. According to CNN,

Only about 25 out of 445,500 [double eagles minted in 1933] are known to have survived destruction after the United States abandoned the gold standard in 1933 and ordered them melted down.

The news angle here involves a few coins that escaped melting:

Ten "Double Eagle" $20 coins minted in 1933 were discovered in September in a Philadelphia antiques and jewelry store and voluntarily handed by its owners, the Langbord family, to the Mint for authentication.

In June, the Mint confirmed they were the coveted Double Eagles but informed the Langbords that the coins were being sent for safe-keeping to the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, because the family had no right to them.

The Langbords now say they plan to sue to get the coins back. The coins have an estimated street value, based on numismatic rarity, of $1 million each. The Mint wants to put them in its museum.

CLARIFICATION: Since 1975, US citizens are again allowed to own gold coins, including pre-1933 US mintages. The 1933 mint-date double-eagles are a special case in that they were never officially issued. The Mint contends that any 1933 gold coins in private hands must have been filched.