Why are national flags rarely purple?

Although each country's flag has different colors and shapes, you will hardly find any place that uses a purple flag .

Picture 1 of Why are national flags rarely purple?
National flags are rarely purple. (Photo: iStock).

According to After Skool, there has never been a rule against using purple on national flags . However, countries still do not use this color on their flags. The reason does not come from aesthetic issues.

Purple was originally produced from sea snails in a small area of ​​the Mediterranean. It took 10,000 of these snails to produce 1 gram of purple dye . The cost of producing this color was not cheap before the 19th century . If compared to gold, its value could be higher.

Purple clothing still exists but it is usually only worn by the very rich and mainly by members of the royal family . There used to be a term called "royal purple".

It wasn't until 1856 that William Henry Perkin, a British student, figured out how to make purple dye cheaply. From there, purple became more popular. That's why some flags designed after 1900 may have a few purple streaks.

The Dominican Republic and Nicaragua are the only two countries whose national flags use purple .