Physical metals include silver or gold bars stored in vault for you or you take them home.
Physical based ETF means ETF backed by real metal such as sprott physical ETF (PHYS, PSLV), Central fund of canada, central gold trust, etc. SLV is also physical backed ETF but it can be used by JPM to rip you off.
Some certificates may also work such as Australia Perth Mint, some Canadian banks. But be careful to change them at later stage to physical since in extreme cases, they may change the terms.
I type fast so I may have some typos. Hope it is not what you mean.
