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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 U.S. Secretary of State), and more generally for the design represented upon it. The Great Seal was first publicly used in 1782.Though the United States has never adopted any "national coat of arms," the image from the obverse of the great seal is often used informally as national arms, and is used on state documents such as passports in this capacity. The description below refers to colored representations of the seal as often seen; the physical Great Seal itself, as affixed to paper, is of course monochrome.
1 Design
1.1 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 (see Olive Branch Petition), with its head turned to the right, symbolizing a preference for 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 (though other arms based on it do; the chief of the arms of the United States Senate shows thirteen, and that sometimes used by the September 11 CommissionThe National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States also known as the 9/11 Commission was set up in late 2002 "to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the" September 11, 2001 attacks including preparedness f has fifty mullets on the chief), and unlike the flag the outermost stripes are white, not red. It is usually blazonBlazon is the formal defining description of a coat-of-arms in Heraldry. The primary definition of a coat of arms is the blazon, not an image.ed Paly of thirteen argent and gules, a chief azure. This is a technically incorrect blazon, as a shield cannot be paly (vertically striped) of an uneven number; a 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.
1.2 Reverse
An unfinished pyramidThis is about the polyhedron. For information on the pyramids of Egypt, see Egyptian pyramids. Geometric shape ''formed by connecting a polygonal base A pyramid is a geometric shape formed by connecting a polygonal base and a point called the apex, by tri 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 ProvidenceGreat Seal of the United States. The Eye of Providence is a symbol showing an 'all-seeing' eye surrounded by rays of light or a glory and usually enclosed by a triangle. It is commonly interpreted as representing the omniscient eye of God keeping watch on watches over it. Two mottoes appear: Annuit CœptisAnnuit coeptis is one of two mottos (along with Novus Ordo Seclorum) on the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. It means "He [God] has approved our beginnings" in the Latin language. The motto also appears on the back side of the US one d signifies that somebody (presumably Providence) has "nodded at (our) beginnings." Novus Ordo SeclorumThe phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum ( Latin for "New Order of the Ages" or "New Order for the Ages") was originally a motto of the Renaissance, appears on the reverse of the Great Seal of the United States, first publicly revealed in 1782 and printed on the ba, a quotation from VirgilFor other uses see Virgil (disambiguation). Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 19 BC) known in English as Virgil or Vergil Latin poet, is the author of the Eclogues the Georgics and the Aeneid this last being a narrative poem in twelve books that is, refers to a "new order of the ages," i.e. a paradigm shift.
