Is it legal to own a bar of gold?

Answer 1

Answer #1 is about finding a bar of gold and whether you then own it.

Answer #2 is about whether it is legal to own gold bullion at all.

#1

Yes, it is legal to own a bar of gold. It is illegal to steal it though, as you know. It can be illegal if the bar is stolen or found off of someone else's property. If you find it in a nearby mine owned by no one, to take ownership, you must go to court and explain exactly where you found it and then get a certificate signed by the marshall to prove to anyone that you find it. You must have a witness with you who saw you find it. This is why it is very important that you take people with you. There are times when you take people with you and you find gold but the someone with you claims they found it first. In this case, you are taken to court and they decide by listening to each side. If there is a rare point where they cannot decide who finds it, the judge tells them to eitheir give it to charity (which would help like, a ton! But, sadly, 99.89% of people just do option 2) or put it where you first found it and wait for another lucky miner to find it. So, in certain cases, it is illegal. But if it's on your property and someone claims it's theirs, the court must see a property line and decide who's it is. Most likely, the plaintiff is to get it. So, it is possibly illegal, but sometimes, on rare cases, it is legal to own a bar of gold.

#2

It was not legal to own a bar of gold in America between May 1, 1933 and 30th/31st Dec 1974. Executive Order 6102 made it a crime, punishable by 10 years in prison, to own gold apart from small amounts for "customary use in industry, profession or art". So you could keep your jewellery but woe betide you if you hung onto a bar of gold even if you'd bought it legitimately. You had to sell it to the Federal Reserve.