Great Seal of the United States of this number is a common motif in the seal. The official description of the seal states that there should be thirteen stars in the "glory" above the eagle's head, thirteen stripes on the shield, and thirteen arrows in the eagle's talon. The initial description of the reverse specified thirteen [[step pyramid|levels to the pyramid]], and though the number was left out of the final version, all depictions typically still show thirteen levels. Also by custom, since 1885 there are thirteen leaves and thirteen olives on the olive branch. [[File:GreatSealPress.jpg|thumb|The press and cabinet, made in 1903]] In the Department of
Great Seal of the United States current die is the seventh, and was made in 1986. [[File:US Dorsett seal.jpg|thumb|Dorsett seal, reversed photography]] In 1894 Palemon Howard Dorsett, a lifelong Department of Agriculture employee, turned up at the Department of State with a metal die engraved with the Great Seal, claiming it had originally been given to his family by a nephew of [[George Washington]]. It was examined by [[Gaillard Hunt]], the author of a pamphlet on the Great Seal, who agreed that it appeared to be contemporaneous with the original 1782 seal, but he took no further interest in the matter. Decades later, in 1936, Dorsett