States

government. The seal used by the United States in congress assembled, shall be the seal of the United States, viz.: ARMS vale ways of thirteen pieces argent and gules; a chief azure; the escutcheon on ter talon, an olive branch, and in his sinister, a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper, and in his beak a scroll, inscribed with this motto “ £ pluribus unum.”—For the Crest: over the head of the eagle which appears above the escutcheon, a glory, or breaking through a cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen stars, forming a constellation argent on an azure field.

— Re EvERSE, a pyramid unfinished. In the zenith an eye in a triangle, surrounded with a glory proper: over the eye, these words, “ Annuit ceptis.” On the base of the pyramid the numerical letters MPCCLXXVI; and underneath the following motto, ‘Novus ordo sectorum.” —Resolution of congress, June 20, 1782; Gordon’s Dig. art. 207.