Sard

Sard is a variety of chalcedony, the fine-grained form of quartz, and like its close relative carnelian it owes its colour to iron oxide. Set beside carnelian it tends to be darker, ranging from deep red-brown to nearly black, and harder and tougher, with a duller, more jagged break; but the two names are often swapped and the line between them is blurred. Pliny tied the name to Sardis in Lydia, where the stone came from, while others trace it to a Persian word for a yellowish red. Sard was carved into Assyrian cylinder seals, Egyptian and Phoenician scarabs, and early Greek and Etruscan gems, and the first stone of the Hebrew high priest's breastplate was probably sard. Cunningham, who calls it a reddish yellow or brown quartz related to carnelian, gives sard projective energy, Mars and fire, and lists love, protection, courage and easing childbirth among its powers. He believes it works better for women than for men. He uses it in protective rites, to defeat hexes and to build courage and self-confidence, and records that it was once given to women in labour to help the birth go smoothly.