There are thousands of different types of metals in the universe, but there are only a couple that people would risk their lives for. Among those would be gold, silver and platinum. But there are other kinds of money that people are willing to do almost anything to get: bitcoins.
Now, bitcoins aren't really real, they are digital. But, even still, people all around the world try to steal these bitcoins. Because they are digital, people can make however many of them they want to make instantly with the click of a button. So, if somebody figured out how to make them, they could make infinite amounts of money at will. These bitcoins are still a test in progress, as governments around the world use them as unsurely, unsure about losing trillions of dollars by using them. Right now, it costs $388.42 to get one bitcoin.
Now, gold, on the other hand is worth a little more than a piece of digital data. The market price for one ounce of gold right now is $1,239.06. That might seem expensive to you, but to many people gold is more valuable than cash. Because gold is worth that same $1,239 in every country in the world, if the US economy crashed and cash wasn't worth anything anymore, your gold would still be worth the same as it was before in any country. This goes with other precious metals as well.
The current market price for one ounce of silver is $15.82, which is quite affordable. Now, you can definitely see that silver is not quite worth as much as gold, and as much as you may have thought it was worth.