page_title: Great Seal of the United States
section_title: Third committee
hierarchical_section_title: Great Seal of the United States / Genesis / Third committee
caption_attribution_description: Detail of a $50 Continental Currency note from 1778. The note was designed by Francis Hopkinson, and this unfinished pyramid design was a precursor to the reverse side of the Great Seal of the United States, which Hopkinson later worked on, though using different designs. Later in the Great Seal process, William Barton took this pyramid and added the Eye Of Providence overhead (itself taken from a still earlier Great Seal attempt).
context_page_description: The Great Seal is a principal national symbol of the United States. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself, which is kept by the United States Secretary of State, and more generally for the design impressed upon it. The obverse of the Great Seal depicts the national coat of arms of the United States.
  First used in 1782, the seal is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the federal government of the United States. Since 1935, both sides of the Great Seal have appeared on the reverse of the one-dollar bill. The coat of arms is used on official documents – including United States passports – military insignia, embassy placards, and various flags. The Seal of the President of the United States is directly based on the Great Seal, and its elements are used in numerous government agency and state seals.
  Today's official versions from the Department of State are largely unchanged from the 1885 designs. The current rendering of the reverse was made by Teagle & Little of Norfolk, Virginia, in 1972. It is nearly identical to previous versions, which in turn were based on Lossing's 1856 version.
context_section_description: After two more years, Congress formed a third committee on May 4, 1782, this time consisting of John Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Elias Boudinot.  Arthur Lee replaced Rutledge, although he was not officially appointed.  As with the previous two committees, most of the work was delegated to a heraldic expert, this time 28-year-old William Barton.
  Barton drew a design very quickly, using a rooster on the crest, but it was much too complex.  No drawing of this design seems to have survived.
  Barton then came up with another design, which the committee submitted back to Congress on May 9, 1782, just five days after being formed.  This time, the figures on each side of the shield were the "Genius of the American Confederated Republic" represented by a maiden, and on the other side an American warrior. At the top is an eagle and on the pillar in the shield is a "Phoenix in Flames".  The mottos were In Vindiciam Libertatis (In Defense of Liberty) and Virtus sola invicta (Only virtue unconquered).
  For the reverse, Barton used a pyramid of thirteen steps, with the radiant Eye of Providence overhead, and used the mottos Deo Favente ("With God favoring") and Perennis (Everlasting).  The pyramid had come from another Continental currency note designed in 1778 by Hopkinson, this time the $50 note, which had a nearly identical pyramid and the motto Perennis.  Barton had at first specified "on the Summit of it a Palm Tree, proper," with the explanation that "The Palm Tree, when burnt down to the very Root, naturally rises fairer than ever," but later crossed it out and replaced it with the Eye of Providence, taken from the first committee's design.
  Congress again took no action on the submitted design.
caption: Hopkinson's pyramid from 1778
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