Gold v/s Silver

While this has nothing to do with RVing or Campgrounds, this question has puzzled me since I first joined the navy in 1962, and I've thought of it off and on since, but never had an answer. Maybe some of you "experts" can fill me in; Why, if gold is more expensive than silver, is it reversed in military rank structure, ie. 01(gold)/02(silver), 04(gold)/05(silver), W1,2(gold)/W3,4(silver)?

In the case of USN & USMC CWO devices it is just to confuse Our Army & USAF buddies.. oops, no, that's the Navy's sleeve insignia structure, E-1 thru O-10..

Found this..
From 1872 the majors received oak leaves in gold to distinguish them from the silver of lieutenant colonels and the bars of both captains and lieutenants became silver. In a similar fashion, 1917 saw the introduction of a single gold bar for second lieutenants. These changes created the curious situation (in terms of heraldic tradition) of silver outranking gold. One after-the-fact explanation suggested by some NCOs is that the more-malleable gold suggests that the bearer is being "molded" for his or her responsibilities -- as a field officer (second lieutenant) or staff officer (major). However, this explanation may be more clever than correct, for while the insignia for second lieutenant and major are gold colored they are actually made of brass (except that the gold bars used to "pin on" a Second Lieutenant at the US Military Academy are, by tradition, 14 karat gold), and brass is a base metal while silver is a precious metal. The rank order thus does not actually conflict with heraldic tradition.

Here..

www.ask.com/wiki/United_States_Army_officer_rank_insignia

And we also know that usually the person that ranks directly below the person in charge always does more actual work, so the gold/silver back-wards rankings illustrate value more correctly who does the work instead of who barks the orders to get it done.