In popular culture, sets of precious substances may form hierarchies which express conventional perceived relative value or merit.
Precious metals appear prominently in such hierarchies, but as they grow, gems and semi-precious materials may be introduced as part of the system.
In Japan, the traditional Sho Chiku Bai (松竹梅) ranking system has a hierarchy of pine 松 (matsu), bamboo 竹 (take), and plum 梅 (ume).
This presumably echoes conventional coinage systems, in which cheap bronze or copper denominations could aggregate to intermediate silver coins, then to gold money.
Some multiplayer video games feature a hierarchy of players that uses precious metal names to distinguish the various levels of skill, often progressing from Bronze to Silver, to Gold, to Platinum, then to Diamond.