The Symbols Of The Great Seal

Great Seal

Do you know what the Great Seal is and what it's used for? The Great Seal is our nation's official way to seal any documents, it´s used on treaties or documents that the president signs to officialate it. Many people look at the Great Seal as a good thing,, they look at it like that because it usually means that a peace treaty has been signed with another country.

The symbols on the Great Seal The Great Seal has two sides, one having the eagle and shield while the other side has the pyramid. First we'll write about the side with the eagle and shield. In the center you will find the Eagle which is the U.S bird, in its talons it has an Olive Branch on one side and 13 Arrows on the other side. The Olive Branch has 13 Leaves

The Pyramid is built with only 13 steps to it, those 13 steps are what represents the original 13 states. On the bottom step you can see the letters ¨MDCCLXXVI¨ carved into it, in roman numerals it´s the date of the Declaration of Independence which is 1776. At the top of the Pyramid you can see an Eye in a triangle coming from a burst of light. Some say it's the Eye of the illuminati but the creator, Barton, says that it's the, ¨All-seeing eye.¨ At the top you can see the words, ¨Annuit Coeptis¨ which is a latin motto which was suggested by the creator Charles Thomason in 1782 and when it´s translated to english it says, ¨Favors Undertakings.¨ At the bottom of the Seal on a banner are the words, ¨Novus Ordo Seclorum¨ which when its translated to english it says, ¨A New Order of the Ages.¨
Design of the Great Seal In total it took a whopping 7 different dies of the Great Seal until the perfect one was made. Of course along the way there was some mishaps and failures but also so very well made dies. A couple of the dies names were the Throop die, Masi treaty-seal, Baumgarten, Tiffany, and Zeitler die. There was three different committees that were competing to make the best die. Each committee had different important people which we’ll go into detail about

Thomson had used the motto, ¨E Pluribus Unum¨ from the first committee. He used the idea of having the 13 stars come out from the clouds above the Eagles head. The idea of putting a shield on the Eagles chest came from all the committee's ideas because each committee had one in their artwork. On the reverse side of the Seal he got the idea of the unfinished seal from the third committee and the idea of a triangle around the, ¨All Seeing Eye¨ from the first committee. The idea of putting the date of the Decleration of Independence somewhere on the seal came from the first and second committee but he thought of putting it on the bottom step of the unfinished pyramid with thirteen total