# Why is silver superior to gold in American military ranks? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2008, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068 "2008-02-03T06:27:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/1 "2008-02-03T06:27:23Z")
Traditionally, gold has been seen as superior to silver in Western culture. Silver is less valuable, and just in terms of aesthetics it’s less vibrant and eye-catching. Silver is still a precious metal, of course, but gold has always been number one in terms of signifying status, excellence, value, etc. Why, then, is silver superior to gold in the insignia of the American military? The bar of a second lieutenant is gold, whereas the bars of a first lieutenant and captain are silver, along with the eagle of a colonel and the stars of a general. The leaf symbol of a major is gold, but the very same symbol for lieutenant colonel (a rank higher) is silver. It seems like, intuitively, this should all be the other way around? Right? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/2 "2008-02-03T06:36:54Z")
Brass? ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/3 "2008-02-03T06:46:30Z")
Yep, it’s brass. Tris ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/4 "2008-02-03T07:30:12Z")
Even so, it would still seem like the highest rank should be gold. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/5 "2008-02-03T08:06:52Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Even so, it would still seem like the highest rank should be gold. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but then, somebody might confuse it with the brass. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/838e76/32.png) [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/One_And_Only_Wanderers)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/6 "2008-02-03T08:58:56Z")
hmm why the phrase top brass instead of top silver then? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/7 "2008-02-03T09:43:28Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] hmm why the phrase top brass instead of top silver then? [/QUOTE] All the generals wear brass. ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/8 "2008-02-03T10:07:37Z")
So, are the insignias made out of a silver-colored and a gold-colored brass then? Was that always the case? Whatever the actual materials used, I don’t think that’s the question the OP is asking. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/9 "2008-02-03T10:22:07Z")
[QUOTE=sturmhauke] So, are the insignias made out of a silver-colored and a gold-colored brass then? Was that always the case? Whatever the actual materials used, I don’t think that’s the question the OP is asking. [/QUOTE] Brass, being an alloy of copper and zinc, is yellow colored. The “silver” insignia is made of some other material, probably nickel. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/10 "2008-02-03T10:25:30Z")
Once upon a time, rank insignia was worn on epaulettes. Company officers wore relatively plain epaulettes: alone for a 2nd lieutenant, with a bar for a 1st lieutenant, with 2 bars for a captain. Field officers wore fancier epaulettes: alone for a major, with a leaf for a lieutenant colonel, with an eagle for a colonel. Generals wore much fancier epaulettes with 1 to 4 stars. Note that the 2nd lieutenant and the major both wore unadorned epaulettes. The shape of the epaulette itself was sufficient to distinguish them. Some branches wore gold insignia on silver epaulettes, some wore silver insignia on gold epaulettes. Generals’ epaulettes were always gold, so their insignia has always been silver. At some point, the army switched everyone to gold epaulettes. So everyone’s insignia became silver. In the mid-1800s, epaulettes were restricted to full dress uniforms. For everyday duty, the insignia was worn on rectangular shoulder straps like you see in Western movies and Civil War movies. Now there was a problem: Since the shoulder strap was identical for all commissioned ranks, there was no way to distinguish a major from a 2nd lieutenant. So they took the lieutenant colonel’s leaf and changed the color. Now the major had a gold leaf, and the 2nd lieutenand had a plain shoulder strap. Now the notion of silver outranking gold was semi-official. When the army adopted khaki and olive drab field uniforms in the late 1800s, they dispensed with the big shoulder strap, and simply pinned the insignia to the collar or the shoulder. Now there was a problem: since the uniform was almost identical for all ranks, there was no way to distinguish a 2nd lieutenant from a buck private. So they took the 1st lieutenant’s bar, and changed the color. Hence the “butterbar”. Now the notion of silver outranking gold was firmly established. > [@](#): > > by \*\*One And Only Wanderers \*\* > hmm why the phrase top brass instead of top silver then? The official rank insignia may be silver, but most of the other decorations on the uniform are gold (brass). The higher the rank, the more decorations. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/11 "2008-02-03T17:11:38Z")
[QUOTE=One And Only Wanderers] hmm why the phrase top brass instead of top silver then? [/QUOTE] One explanation is that officers at or above a certain grade (full Colonel in the Army, full Commander in the Navy) wear a metallic filigree/braid on the bill of the cap. Wearers of such are informally referred to as “brass hats,” or “brass” for short. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/12 "2008-02-03T17:30:16Z")
My understanding is that traditionally gold was not more valuable than silver in Western culture. > [@](#): > > Silver, in the form of electrum, was coined to produce money in around 700 BCE by the Lydians. Later, silver was refined and coined in its pure form (see silver coin). Many nations used silver as the basic unit of monetary value (see Silver standard). The words for “silver” and “money” are the same in at least 14 languages… > > The name of the United Kingdom monetary unit “pound” reflects the fact that it originally represented the value of one troy pound of sterling silver. > > In the 1800s, many nations, such as the United States and Great Britain, switched from silver to a gold standard of monetary value… No time to find a better quote. This one from wiki. I’m talking about the desirability of silver, not necessarily its trading value. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/13 "2008-02-03T17:51:04Z")
A breakdown from this [website](http://webpages.charter.net/usaihp/SilverGold.html.html): Back in the early-ish 19th century, the branches of the Army were identified on officers by the colors of their epaulettes/rank they wore. The infantry happened to be prescribed silver rank. Later on, the Colonel’s eagle ended up being stipulated as silver, simply because there were more infantry colonels than other branch colonels. From this, it trickled downhill that a Lieutenant Colonel would wear silver, and a Major gold, and so on to Lieutenants. So, in typical Army fashion, it all boiled down to numbers. Since there were more silver-wearin’ types, silver became the ‘color of precedence’ and evolved into the current system today. Tripler And thus from the Army, everyone else had to follow suit. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-silver-superior-to-gold-in-american-military-ranks/436068/14 "2008-02-03T18:37:34Z")
[QUOTE=Terminus Est] All the generals wear brass. [/QUOTE] And some wear bras, as well. 😃