Currency metal
A metal becomes money by being durable, divisible, portable, recognisable and scarce, and the same short list of metals has satisfied that in most places independently. Coinage is the oldest sustained industrial use of several of them, and assaying is among the oldest analytical chemistry.
The interesting failures are the metals that qualified and did not last. Aluminium was more valuable than gold before the Hall-Héroult process, and nickel and copper coinage survives while the precious metals have gone — a coin's metal is now worth less than its face value almost everywhere, which is a modern condition rather than a permanent one.
Alloy
Cupronickel
the standard material for silver-coloured circulating coinage since silver was withdrawn from it
Element
Gold
The one metal that does not corrode, tarnish or react — which is most of why it became money.
Element
Silver
The best electrical conductor of any element, used for almost everything except conducting electricity.
Alloy
Sterling silver
historically — the sterling standard is a coinage standard before it is a silversmith's one
Each of these uses is established and cited on its own. Whether something counts as an ore, for instance, depends on grade, price and era — and those qualifications are shown alongside it.