You own a gold claim but you don't know squat 'bout mining. So you sell, or perhaps lease, your gold claim to someone who knows how to get the gold out of the ground. If you are smart, you'd negotiate for royalties from the smelter. This way, you get your cut in actual gold ounces, year after year, until the deposit is gone. IF you are really smart, you set it up so you can choose: dollars or gold.

Now that didn't used to matter when the gold/dollar ratio was set by law. But now, if you had a gold claim being mined and paying royalties, you'd want the gold. I would. With gold going up and the dollar going down, that just makes sense, especially if you can bury it in the back yard for a couple of years until things get really weird. When gold was in a bear market, I'd have wanted the cash.

It's the same thing with oil. Tom is correct, The Oil Companies pay royalties to the owners (the gov...US?) in either oil or dollars. Dollars the Fed can print. Given the growing world-wide demand for oil, the decreasing discovery of deposits, an all time production high, and a falling dollar, which would you chose to stockpile?

Oil or dollars?

Right now, if you could get paid in the money / currency / commodity of your choice, what would it be?