Congress accepted the final design of the Great Seal of the United States on June 20, 1782.
The seal’s creation began on July 4, 1776, when Congress appointed its first committee to design a national emblem. The project took six years and involved three committees and fourteen contributors before Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson assembled the accepted design.
The final design featured an American bald eagle, a shield with thirteen stripes, thirteen arrows, an olive branch, and thirteen stars. Its scroll carried the Latin motto E pluribus unum, meaning “Out of many, one.” The reverse displayed an unfinished pyramid and the Eye of Providence.
The first brass die was made later in 1782, and the seal was first used on September 16 to authenticate a document concerning a prisoner exchange. The seal is not the same thing as the presidential seal, which is a separate emblem used by the executive branch.