Great Seal of the United States depicted a lion holding seven arrows representing their seven provinces. State currency may have provided further inspiration; a 1775 South Carolina bill showed a bundle of 13 arrows and a 1775 Maryland note depicted a hand with an olive branch of 13 leaves. [[File:US Great Seal Charles Thomson Preliminary Design.jpg|thumb|left|[[Charles Thomson|Thomson's]] drawing, the basis for the final seal]] For the reverse, Thomson essentially kept Barton's design, but re-added the triangle around the Eye of Providence and changed the mottos to "Annuit Cœptis" and "Novus Ordo Seclorum". Thomson sent his designs back to Barton, who made some final alterations. The stripes
Great Seal of the United States Over its head there appears a "glory" with 13 mullets (stars) on a blue field. In the current (and several previous) dies of the great seal, the 13 stars above the eagle are arranged in rows of 1-4-3-4-1, forming a six-pointed star. The 1782 resolution of Congress adopting the arms, still in force, legally blazoned the shield as "Paleways of 13 pieces, argent and gules; a chief, azure." As the designers recognized, this is a technically incorrect blazon under traditional English heraldic rules, since in English practice a vertically striped [[shield would be described as "[[Pale (heraldry)|paly]]", not "paleways", and