To do so, Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues had to reach deep into the 90-year-old Federal Reserve Act to a previously unused clause that gives the central
bank broad powers “under exigent circumstances.” (A
Treasury default would probably meet that definition.)
But the rule (Section 13, paragraph 3) says only that the Fed can lend out “notes, drafts, and bills of exchange.” Nothing in there about taking platinum as collateral.