Remember someone telling me that the US officer rank insignia increased rank as you increased altitude!:
Gold Bar = 2Lt (Metal/Ore found on ground)
Silver Bar = Lt
2 Silver bars = Capt
Gold Leaf (on tree) = Maj
Silver leaf (on Tree) = Lt Col
Bird (On top of tree) = Col
Star (In Sky) = Brig Gen
More stars = bigger general
Always did wonder why silver outranked gold though. But according to that link they still have it wrong (but not for the more obvious value of the metal reason). It states that Lt Cols rank was the same colour as the border, so when all the borders were changed to become gold surely all Lt Cols rank should have become gold!
