I got a spam e-mail this morning from some gold company. It was warning about the possibility of the government confiscating almost all types of gold from citizens. Don’t laugh. It already happened in 1933 under Roosevelt. The law that was passed back then is still in effect. All it would take is the president’s signature to do it again. Back in 1933, the only private gold that was exempt was certain rare coins, religious artifacts, necessary appliances, etc. I guess that was the point of the e-mail; they were trying to sell rare coins instead of bullion.

Somehow this reminds me of old Mr. Cohen…

Old Mr. Cohen had lived in Germany his whole life, but once Hitler came to power, Mr. Cohen could see the handwriting on the wall, and he decided to head for the U.S.A.  The big problem was he couldn’t take his money with him, as the Nazis would confiscate it. So he came up with a plan…

He converted all his cash into gold and had a jeweler melt it down and cast it into 5 pairs of solid gold dentures which, when painted, looked just like the real thing.

So Cohen makes it out of Germany and lands on Ellis Island. Unfortunately, it was a rough journey and the dentures had had some of the paint chipped-off along the way. A U.S. Customs agent noticed the spots of gleaming gold and stopped him right away and questioned him. In danger of losing his whole fortune, Mr. Cohen had to think fast…

“Vell”, he says, “I’m an Orthodox Jew and we use separate dishes for meat and dairy. I’m a little more observant, myself, so I also use different dentures for meat and dairy”.

“Okay”, says the agent, “that explains two of the dentures, but what about the other three?”

“Vell”, Cohen says, “Orthodox Jews also keep separate sets of dishes that they only use once a year on Passover. I’m a little more observant, myself, so I also keep separate dentures just for Passover”.

“Okay”, says the agent, “that explains four sets, but what about the fifth one?”

“Vell”, says Mr. Cohen, “sometimes I just like a nice ham sandvich!”

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