TINCTURES

Heraldry distinguishes between metals, colours and furs, each having a name in the language of heraldry, derived from Norman French.

Or (gold) and Argent (silver) are metals, and they can be depicted as yellow and white, respectively.

Gules (red), Azure (blue), Vert (green), Sable (black) are all colours.

Ermine is a fur, the white stands for the animal's winter coat, the black dots represent the tip of the tail.

It is a basic rule in heraldry that metal may not be placed upon nor border another metal, and the same applies to colours.

If a shield is quartered, one quarter may border another of the same type of tincture; on one shield, border lines are added as separators.

The red and the blue are from two different shields.

The grey of the cross and white of the shield are both silver and therefore the red border is needed as separator.

A line of gold separates the colours blue and green.