can you order silver bars or gold bars from your local bank?

sorry, but they stopped doing that...

i wish!!!

i would no longer use paper money!

They were probably referring to gold and silver certificates not the actual physical bars.

Bullion only retains it's value if kept in registered vaults. If you want small quantities of bullion, you can buy Chipgold (that's a product name, they embed a small chip of gold or silver in a credit card sized piece of plastic with the appropriate certification and security). However you'll probably pay a premium of about 47% over the spot rate to purchase and take physical delivery of such small quantities.

There are some banks that offer that as a service with mutual funds, T bills etc. It's not a teller transaction

I hear they do that overseas, but not here in the u.s. Either buy from one of the online retailers - Kitco, or buy from a local coin dealer.

maybe not silver or gold bars, but you can still buy silver and gold coins.