Update: Thanks for the upvotes but this won't work for technical reasons.
See this comment from a Stack Exchange employeecomment from a Stack Exchange employee.
The empty parens on the badges display are a bit jarring.
How about this? Note that the numbers are the same color as the parens (gold, silver, bronze).
This suggestion comes from @Kaushul Modi in http://meta.emacs.stackexchange.com/a/411/870.https://emacs.meta.stackexchange.com/a/411/870.