Seal of the Vice President of the United States of the national coat of arms; it shows an eagle with wings "displayed and inverted" (i.e., wing tips pointing down), with its head turned toward dexter (its own right). In its right talon is an olive branch, and its left holds six arrows (just like the incorrectly drawn 1841 Great Seal die). The shield has the usual blue chief and thirteen white and red stripes. At the top is the legend , and the bottom has . No other impression of a vice presidential seal is known prior to the 1948 version. The Presidential seal and flag were redesigned in
Great Seal of the United States engraver added a border of [[acanthus (genus)|acanthus]] leaves. Depicting an eagle with a [[Crest (feathers)|crest]] is typical in heraldry, but is at odds with the official blazon of the seal which specifies a bald eagle (which have no crests). The blazon does not specify the arrangement of the stars (which were randomly placed in Thomson's sketch) nor the number of points; the engraver chose six-pointed stars (typical of English heraldry), and arranged them in a larger six-pointed star. No drawing made by the engraver has ever been found, and it is not known if Thomson provided any. This first die