Great Seal of the United States

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The Great Seal of United States is the official coat of arms of the United States. It is placed in official documents from the United States Government. The name is used both for the coat of arms, and the material seal itself, which is made by the United States' executive power. The design was submitted and accepted on June 20th, 1782.

The seal's design is used in national documents, such as passports, by the United States military, and flags. As a coat of arms, it has the national colors of the United States, but the material seal itself only has a basic black and white design (like when used on paper).

Since 1935, the two faces of the Great Seal appear in on the one dollar banknote.

Great Seal Of The United States Media

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  The arms as held by Columbia in the war scene of the United States Capitol's 1865 Apotheosis of Washington

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  The first (1782) die of the Great Seal of the United States, used until 1841. Today it is on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

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  Drawing of the imprint made by the 1782 (original) die of the Great Seal of the United States.

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  The 1841 die of the Great Seal of the United States. It is sometimes called the "illegal die" because it only has six arrows instead of the required 13. This die was used until 1877.

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  Impression made from the 1841 die of the Great Seal of the United States. The impression is from a May 8, 1845 presidential proclamation of James K Polk, which was a convention with the Grand Duchy of Hesse (signed on March 26, 1944) for the mutual abolition of droit d'aubaine and taxes on emigration.

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  Impression made by the 1877 die of the Great Seal of the United States. This die repeated errors made on the 1841 die, and was only used until 1885. The impression is from an August 1, 1879 proclamation by Rutherford B. Hayes, which was a consular convention with the Netherlands (originally signed on May 23, 1878).

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  The 1885 die of the Great Seal of the United States. This was a large departure from previous dies, and formed the basis for today's die, which is almost identical. It was made by Tiffany & Co, with their chief designer being James Horton Whitehouse. It was used until 1904, when a new die with just a couple of small changes was made. This die was lost for several decades but was found in 1976.

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  Impression made by the the 1885 die of the Great Seal of the United States. Taken from a proclamation from Benjamin Harrison dated June 4, 1889, regarding a supplementary convention with Venezuela (originally signed on October 5, 1888).

Other websites

• Vectorial logo the Great Seal to download & print Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
• The Great Seal
• downloadable PDF booklet from U.S. State Department
• Original Copy of the Great Seal