I don't quite understand how silver certificates worked. What I've
heard, you could take one to a bank and redeem it for silver. But how
would that silver actually be distributed?

You could redeem them for silver at Federal Reserve banks, of which
there aren't very many, not commercial banks. I believe they gave you
a small paper envelope with the appropriate amount of silver (not very
much for $1) inside. There were also silver coins that contained the
appropriate amount of silver, so you could go to any bank and swap
paper money for coins.

Also, were silver certificates regularly used as general currency?

Yes, back in the 1950s and early 1960s most dollar and five dollar
notes were silver certificates with blue seals. Since I was a child
at the time, I didn't often see a larger ones so I don't know what
color seals they had.

Even though large numbers of them were turned in for metal in the
1960s before the government stopped doing that, the bills from the
1950s are not considered rare by collectors, since so many were in
circulation.

R's,
John