Once the new, greater town of Boppard had been founded, the town's old arms lost their validity. Only in 1985 could the town council reach an agreement on new arms. The problem stemmed from, among other things, wanting to please everyone by choosing an heraldic emblem with which all "Ortsbezirke" could identify. This was not easy from an heraldic point of view, for only two of the constituent communities, Boppard and Bad Salzig, had borne arms before amalgamation. The other eight therefore had no heraldic history. Thus it was decided that the new coat of arms should be charged with the Imperial Eagle, like the old arms, but that the eagle should have an inescutcheon on its breast, itself charged with Saint George's Cross, ironically the heraldic device formerly borne by the Electorate of Trier, against whose hegemony the townsfolk had once fought so hard. The Imperial Eagle was meant to refer to the time when Boppard was a free imperial city – before the widely unpopular pledge put the town in Electoral-Trier hands – and the Trier cross, of course, to the time under Trier's rule. An element of unity could be seen in the latter charge, for all but one of the "Ortsbezirke" had once lain under Electoral-Trier sovereignty, Holzfeld being the only one that never had.