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 Realm High Chancellor. Edward the Confessor sometime before A.D. 1066 started using a "Great Seal" casting in wax of his own visage to signify that a document carried the force of his will. With some exceptions, each subsequent monarch up to 1603 and the Union of the Crowns which united the crowns of Scotland and England has chosen his or her own design for the Great Seal. When opening Parliament, on 3 September 1654, the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell was escorted by the three "Commissioners of the Great Seal of the Commonwealth of England", who were Whitelock, Lisle, and Widdrington. This