The risk of volatility in gold and silver prices is far, FAR higher than the risk of depreciation of bank deposits except over very long time periods like several decades. The shorter your time horizon, the higher the volatility risk. It is only over very long periods of time that gold and silver can be expected to show steady real values (as opposed to nominal values), because the daily fluctuations are smoothed out over long periods of time. Gold and silver fairly regularly suffer 10% or more losses in a month, and that level of loss is something you will never see in such a short time frame from a bank deposit. Bank deposits are far safer.