Great Seal of the United States |
Obverse
The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself (which is in the keeping of the US Secretary of State), and more generally for the design represented upon
it. The Great Seal was first publicly used in 1782.
Unlike many countries which use a present or former royal coat of arms
for symbolic purposes, the United States has no historical arms; in 1776 it went straight
from a collection of colonies attached to Great Britain to an independent
republic. Nor has it ever adopted any 'national coat of arms.' However, the image
from the obverse of the great seal is often used informally as national arms. The description below refers to colored
representations of the seal as often seen; the phyisical Great Seal itself, as affixed to documents, is of course monochrome.
Design
Obverse
The main figure on the obverse (front) of the seal is a Bald Eagle with its
wings outstretched ("displayed," in heraldic terms). It holds a bundle of arrows in the left talon and an olive branch in the
right, symbolic respectively of war and peace. The eagle clutches the motto "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one) in its beak; over its head there appears a 'glory' with thirteen stars
on a blue field.
The shield the eagle bears on its breast, though sometimes drawn incorrectly, has
two main differences from the American flag; it
has no stars on the blue chief, and unlike the flag the outermost stripes are white, not red. It is usually blazoned Paly of thirteen argent and gules, a chief azure. This is technically
incorrect blazon, as a shield cannot be paly (vertically striped) of an uneven number; more proper blazon would be argent,
six pallets gules... (six red stripes on a white field). But the incorrect blazon is used to preserve the reference to the
thirteen original colonies.
Reverse
An unfinished pyramid appears on the reverse of the seal, inscribed on its base
with the date 1776 in Roman numerals. Where the top of the pyramid should be, the so-called eye of Providence watches over it. Two mottoes appear: Annuit Cœptis signifies that somebody (presumably Providence) has "nodded at (our)
beginnings." Novus Ordo Seclorum, a quotation from
Virgil, refers to a "new order of the ages," i.e. a paradigm shift.
Significance
Since 1935, both sides of the Great Seal appear on the reverse of the One-Dollar Bill of the United States.
The symbolism of the obverse is obvious --- the shield is reminiscent of the national flag, and the Bald Eagle is a well-known
national symbol.
That of the reverse is more murky. The image of the eye on the pyramid has frequently been said to have its origins in
Masonic iconography. Conspiracy theories abound about the presence of such Masonic and Illuminati symbology on a national emblem. (Some
have noted that it was President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, a 32nd degree Mason, who put the Great Seal on the one-dollar bill.)
Another controversy centers on the pattern of the glory of stars on the obverse. Some historians believe that Haym Solomon, the financial genius and banker of the American Revolution, played a role in the seal's design. He was
Jewish, and the stars appear to be arranged, roughly, in a Star of David pattern; so the suggestion has been made that they might be a mark
of "recognition" for Haym Solomon's efforts.
History
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress named a committee to design a great seal for
the country. Almost six years and three committees later they still had not agreed on a design. Finally the problem was turned
over to Charles Thomson, the secretary of the congress, who merged
elements from all three previous attempts. Congress finally approved his integrated design, still in use today, and had it
engraved into brass cylinders ("matrices") about 2.25 inches in diameter.
On September 16, 1782 Thomson used
these matrices for the first time, to verify signatures on a document that authorized George Washington to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. Thomson took care of the seal until the
Constitution installed a new American Government in 1789, when he passed it over to the
Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. He and all following
secretaries have been responsible for applying the seal to diplomatic documents.
The first matrices of the seal were replaced in 1841 when they became too worn to be
effective.
On the Great Seal as depicted in the Seal of the President of the United States, the bald eagle
originally faced its left talon holding the bundle of arrows, symbolizing the "power of war." Following World War II, President Harry
Truman issued an executive order on October 25, 1945 specifying that the eagle face the olive branch
instead, as such symbolizing a nation "both on the march and dedicated to peace." It is said that Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom told Truman during a 1946 visit that he thought the
eagle's head should be on a swivel.
There have been a total of seven reengravings of the seal since the original, which is now on display in the National Archives
in Washington, D.C.
Current Seal
The obverse side of Great Seal is used to emboss the design on international treaties and other official US Government
documents. It is stored in the Exhibit Hall of the US
Department of State inside a locked glass enclosure. An officer from the State Department does the actual sealing of
documents after the US Secretary of State has
countersigned the President's signature. It is used 2,000 to 3,000 times a year.
The obverse of the Great Seal of the United States is the de facto coat
of arms of the United States of America, and it is recognized as such worldwide.
External links
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