Tincture (heraldry) as the field upon which they rest, with the colours reversed. In the municipal arms of Behnsdorf, Saxony-Anhalt, seen at right, the field is divided with the left half white (argent) and the right half green (vert), and the counterchanged tree is green where it lies on the white part of the field, and white where it lies on the green part. The flag of Maryland is another example of counterchanging. The only U.S. state flag to be directly based on English heraldry, it is the arms of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, who founded the colony of Maryland in
Sable (heraldry) Sable (heraldry) In heraldry, sable () is the tincture black, and belongs to the class of dark tinctures, called "colours". In engravings and line drawings, it is sometimes depicted as a region of crossed horizontal and vertical lines, or else marked with "sa." as an abbreviation. The name derives from the black fur of the sable, a species of marten. Centuries ago, arms were often described poetically and the tinctures were connected to different gemstones, flowers and heavenly bodies. Sable usually represented the following: Sable is considered a "colour" in British and French heraldry, and contrasts with lighter "metals", argent