You carry the Great Seal of the United States in your pocket. It is printed on the back of every one-dollar bill - the eagle on one side, the strange unfinished pyramid with its floating eye on the other - and almost no one can explain it. Yet there is no more concentrated piece of American symbolism in existence. Every element was argued over and chosen. Read together, they are a compressed statement of what the founders believed the nation was, and what they hoped it would become.
Here is what each element means - and why the most symbol-dense object in American life still rewards a close look.
The Front: The Eagle and the Shield
The obverse - the front - centers on the bald eagle, the same emblem explored in our piece on the eagle in American art. On its breast sits a shield of thirteen stripes for the original colonies, supported by no outside hand to signify that Americans should rely on their own virtue. In its right talon is an olive branch; in its left, thirteen arrows - peace and the readiness to defend it. In its beak is a scroll reading E Pluribus Unum, "out of many, one," a phrase of exactly thirteen letters describing thirteen colonies becoming a single nation. Above the eagle, a constellation of thirteen stars breaks through a burst of glory.
The Back: The Unfinished Pyramid
The reverse is stranger and more rarely understood. It shows a pyramid of thirteen courses, deliberately unfinished at the top. The unfinished summit is the point: the nation was understood to be a work still in progress, never complete, always building. At the base, in Roman numerals, is MDCCLXXVI - 1776. Above the pyramid floats the Eye of Providence within a triangle, radiating light: the watchful eye of God over the American undertaking.
The Two Latin Mottoes
Two phrases complete the reverse. Above the eye, Annuit Coeptis - "He has favored our undertakings" - again, thirteen letters. Below the pyramid, Novus Ordo Seclorum - "a new order of the ages," often mistranslated as "new world order," but meaning something closer to the dawn of a new era in human self-government. Together they cast the founding as both divinely favored and genuinely new in the history of the world.
The Number Thirteen
Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. Thirteen stripes on the shield, thirteen arrows, thirteen olives and leaves, thirteen stars, thirteen steps on the pyramid, thirteen letters in E Pluribus Unum, thirteen letters in Annuit Coeptis. The number is woven through the seal as a constant signature of the founding generation - the same reverence for the original colonies that runs through the flag itself.
How We Render the Seal in 24K Gold
A symbol this dense asks for a material with equal seriousness. Our Golden Seal renders the emblem in genuine 24-karat gold, as a numbered limited edition with a signed Certificate of Authenticity, framed in black, gold, or bronze. It is an object meant to be studied up close - which is exactly what the Great Seal was designed to reward.
Key Takeaways
- The Great Seal has two sides, both finalized in 1782 and both printed on the one-dollar bill.
- The front shows the eagle, shield, olive branch, arrows, and E Pluribus Unum - "out of many, one."
- The reverse shows an unfinished thirteen-step pyramid and the Eye of Providence.
- Its mottoes mean "He has favored our undertakings" and "a new order of the ages."
- The number thirteen recurs throughout, honoring the original colonies.
Frequently Asked Questions
