The Great Seal of the United States was first used in 1782.
Congress approved the seal’s final design on June 20, 1782, after six years of work involving three committees and numerous contributors. Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, assembled elements from earlier proposals into the final design.
The first brass die was used on September 16, 1782, to authenticate a document concerning George Washington’s negotiations for a prisoner exchange. The seal’s obverse features a bald eagle, a shield, an olive branch, arrows, and the motto E pluribus unum.
The reverse includes an unfinished pyramid, the Eye of Providence, and the Roman numeral MDCCLXXVI for 1776. The reverse was never cut as a physical seal die, but its imagery later appeared on the one-dollar bill.