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Heraldry Stones and Planets
Heraldry is the study of Coats of Arms and shields. The description of a coat of arms uses Old French terms for the colours, which is why the colour comes after the object ("a dragon gules"). There are also gemstones and planets connected with these colours. White and Yellow are considered to be "metals", silver and gold. The others are colours
| Heraldic Colour or Metal |
or |
argent |
gules |
azure |
sable |
vert |
purpure |
tenne |
|---|
| Colour |
gold (or yellow) |
silver (or white) |
red |
blue |
black |
green |
purple |
orange |
|---|
| Stone |
Topaz |
Crystal |
Ruby |
Sapphire |
Diamond
|
Emerald |
Amethyst |
Zircon
|
|---|
| Planet |
Sol, the sun |
Luna, the moon |
Mars |
Jupiter |
Saturn |
Venus |
Mercury |
|---|
Pearl was an alternative for Crystal, for argent (silver).
The orange is modern, I'm sure, since it is assigned to jacinth. Modern jacinth is zircon, which is brown, but the ancient stone was always blue (if not very well-defined!) It also doesn't have a planet connected with it.
The other planets seem to have good stones. Red Mars is ruby, and Venus, the goddess of fertility, is green emerald. Jupiter is god of the skies, so sapphire is a good choice, and topazes are often yellow, for the sun. Altogether a better list than the other planets list.
In heraldry, you were not suppose to have two metals next to each other (or and argent) or two colours next to each other. This may be one reason why, in the Union Jack (flag and Great Britain), the crosses and outlined in white (or argent). This separates the crosses in red, from the background, in blue, since these are both colours. The other reason is that the white is the background or the cross of the flags which make up the Union Jack. Not all flags bother to obey this rule.