When I was a little kid in Social Studies class, I was fascinated by the Gold Standard, and the idea that a dollar is backed by a dollar's worth of gold in Fort Knox, and I believed I had the right to take my dollars into the bank and slap them on the counter and demand their value in gold. Well, of course, it doesn't really work that way. The Coinage Act of 1792 established a "Dollar" as 371.25 grains of pure gold, and the paper currency that is backed by that Dollar became our Dollar bill... until we abandoned the Gold Standard in the '30s, although foreigners in other countries could still exchange their U.S. Dollars for gold until the '60s. Since then our money hasn't really been "Dollars"... it's been Federal Reserve Notes. Start looking up "Federal Reserve Bank" and "Gold Standard" in a search engine and you'll come across a ton of conspiracy theories about the vice grip that the Federal Reserve holds our dear citizenry in by forcing us to use their worthless pieces of paper. But the point is that I can't demand my dollar's worth in gold.

But this guy can. Some oh-so-Chicago landlord has demanded that a bank on his property pay its rent in gold dollars, as stated in the lease, which predates 1933. The gold dollars, of course, are worth about 1500% of their face value. But the lease says $1333 a month, paid in gold dollars, so... I can't really feel sorry for a bank that's been paying on a rent-controlled lease for a hundred years. I mean, $1300 a month for a six-story bank?

I'll reprint the article below, since it's from Crain's Chicago Business, which requires you to register. I'll bet you anything this guy is my landlord, Victor. I wouldn't put it past him to demand rent in gold, teeth, or firstborn children.

A Greektown landlord who would prefer to be paid rent in gold coins has won Illinois Appellate Court backing in his not-so-outlandish quest.

The gold content of the coins would amount to $1.3 million more than their face value over the last seven years of a 99-year lease, according to Foley & Lardner lawyers representing the owner of a six-story bank building at Madison and Halsted streets.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld similar "gold clause" provisions that predate Uncle Sam's going off the gold standard in 1933. The catch is whether the stipulations have been preserved in subsequent lease agreements. Landlord Nebel Inc. says that happened in 1988, when the lease's original terms were reaffirmed during negotiations over an amendment to permit construction of a pedway.

A counterclaim pending in Cook County Circuit Court by a predecessor to tenant MB Financial Bank argues otherwise. "We're hopeful, but we were plenty surprised by the Appellate Court," says Mitchell Feiger, president and CEO of holding company MB Financial Inc. "It's an unusual case."

The bank is paying only $1,333.33 a month on the ancient lease. Gold coins in that amount would be worth nearly $20,000.