"this was before 1933, when gold was compulsorily confiscated by the government (United States Executive Order 6102, April 5 1933)" Along with this Executive order was the need for congress to make it possible for people to pay their bill. Thus the Trading With The Enemy ACT. If you don't know about it you should check it out, but have a legal dictionary as it is not written in english though a lot of people miss this. One has to look up all of the terms, because the legal definition is not the same as the english. lol