Most contracts are closed out without delivery because both sides agree, unless the guy wants physical.. then the exchange has "extra" paper work to do to sort you out.
This is true and it is hard to imagine how any trading market could be different. Not allowed to close out a position?
The important point is though, if you feel physical is worth more than the offered price for whatever reason, you have the option to take it.
I dont think you can like i said unless you tell the exchange before.. They want to know your intentions beforehand although by law you can always request delivery
The option being there ensures that prices are kept in line (by professionals if nothing else).
Since it is 100 ounces and roughly 120K USD per contract, a little paperwork is not out of line. The exchange mostly wants to know is that you can actually pay for and physically take delivery, to avoid broken settlements.
Legal Tender law allows the settlement of any debt in fiat. Most of the ETF filings also make that explicit. Make no mistake, they never have to give you gold.
In the normal course of its business, the Fund is party to financial instruments with off-balance sheet risk. The term “off-balance sheet risk” refers to an unrecorded potential liability that, even though it does not appear on the balance sheet, may result in a future obligation or loss. The financial instruments used by the Fund are commodity futures, whose values are based upon an underlying asset and generally represent future commitments which have a reasonable possibility to be settled in cash or through physical delivery. The financial instruments are traded on an exchange and are standardized contracts.
They can opt deliver cash instead, at their choice.
Another example:
http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2010/12/7_Jim_Rickards_-_Swiss_Bank_Client_Denied_His_$40_Million_in_Gold.html
COMEX Futures have something called a "Force Majeure" clause. It essentially means that if there are events outside of their control, then alternative delivery or settlement is possible. Here is one example where they had to deny delivery in one location and move delivery to another. Yes, this was a reasonable situation and very reasonable resolution.
http://www.goldcore.com/goldcore_blog/cme-declares-force-majeure-due-%E2%80%9Coperational-limitations%E2%80%9D-nyc-gold-depositoryThe problem is what is "reasonable" seems to have a changing definition, especially in times of crisis. Just look at the last financial blowup when the capital structure and legal contract was blatantly thrown out in the GM bailout to screw secured creditors in favor of unsecured unions. Those actions were completely illegal, but that is OK "because crisis" "because evil rich people" (never mind that the creditors screwed were pension funds for middle class workers).
I don't subscribe to some gold bug imaginations that there will be a physical run anytime soon that breaks COMEX, at the same time it is very likely if COMEX does run into issues that settlement in dollars will be decreed as satisfactory "because crisis". Again just go to any MF Global allocated gold holder ask them what they received, the answer will be a) not their gold, b) not any gold, c) something other than gold and d) something less than the value of their allocated gold. The precedents are already set.