You get a dollar back in change. Nothing special. George Washington on the front, a big ONE on the back. But look a little closer. Why is there an unfinished pyramid? What's that eye doing above it? And why does the number 13 keep showing up?
The symbols aren't a secret code. They're part of the Great Seal of the United States, created to tell the story of a country that had just declared its independence.
But here's the curious part: the symbols were designed in the 1780s, yet they didn't appear together on the dollar bill until 1935. So how did a national emblem become something we carry around in our wallets?
Three Founding Fathers Couldn't Agree on a Design
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress had just adopted the Declaration of Independence. Before the day was over, it had another job to tackle: creating an official seal for the new nation.
The assignment went to a committee that included Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams.
That's quite a team. Surely three of America's most famous founders could come up with a design everyone liked.
Apparently not.
Their proposal wasn't adopted. Neither was the next committee's. A third committee followed, and it wasn't until June 20, 1782, that Congress finally approved the Great Seal.
Six years to design a symbol for a country that was still fighting to secure its independence.
The final design had two sides. On one was a bald eagle holding a shield, an olive branch, and arrows. On the other was an unfinished pyramid with an eye floating above it.
It was a little unusual, especially the pyramid. But the images weren't chosen simply because they looked impressive. They were meant to communicate what the new country stood for and what its founders hoped it would become.
And the pyramid might be the most revealing part of the whole design.
The Curious Case of the Unfinished Pyramid
If you're going to put a pyramid on a national emblem, why not give it a proper top?
That missing piece has fascinated people for generations. It also makes the pyramid a surprisingly fitting symbol for the United States in 1782.
The country was young. Independence had been declared, but the Revolutionary War wasn't formally over. The future was anything but certain.
Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Continental Congress who helped finalize the seal, described the pyramid as a symbol of strength and duration. Its unfinished appearance is widely interpreted as a reminder that the nation's work was still in progress.
Then there's the eye.
Floating above the pyramid in a burst of light, it looks mysterious enough to belong in a conspiracy thriller. But the Eye of Providence wasn't invented for the dollar bill. It was already a familiar religious symbol representing divine watchfulness.
In the Great Seal, the eye and the Latin phrase Annuit Coeptis expressed the belief that providence had favored the American cause.
Below the pyramid, another Latin phrase reads Novus Ordo Seclorum, or "A New Order of the Ages." It referred to the beginning of a new American era, not a modern secret plan for world domination.
And those Roman numerals at the bottom?
MDCCLXXVI. That's 1776.
The pyramid isn't a picture of an ancient civilization. It's a statement about a new one, made by people who had no way of knowing whether their experiment would succeed.
But the founders didn't want their seal to speak only about the future. They also wanted it to remember where the country began.
Thirteen Is Everywhere, and That's No Accident
Take another look at the back of a dollar bill. Count the levels of the pyramid.
Thirteen.
Now look at the eagle on the other side of the seal. It holds 13 arrows. Its shield has 13 stripes. Above its head are 13 stars.
There's a reason for all those thirteens: the original 13 states.
The repeated number was a way of keeping the nation's beginnings visible. Even as the country grew, its official emblem would continue to acknowledge the states that started it all.
The eagle carries another message, too.
In one talon, it holds an olive branch, a traditional symbol of peace. In the other are arrows, representing the country's ability to defend itself.
Notice which way the eagle is looking. Its head faces the olive branch, not the arrows.
That wasn't an accident. The official design places peace in the preferred position while keeping the ability to fight close at hand.
And across the ribbon in the eagle's beak is the phrase E Pluribus Unum: "Out of Many, One."
It's only three Latin words, but they capture one of the biggest challenges facing the new country. Thirteen separate states had agreed to become something larger together.
So the eagle and the pyramid aren't competing symbols. They tell two sides of the same story.
One looks at the states coming together. The other looks toward the future they hoped to build.
Yet for more than 150 years, Americans didn't see these two images together on the back of a dollar bill.
The Dollar Bill Was a Latecomer
The Great Seal was approved in 1782, but it wasn't created for money. Its original purpose was to authenticate important government documents.
The familiar dollar-bill design came much later.
In 1935, during Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, the Treasury introduced a one-dollar Silver Certificate featuring both sides of the Great Seal. The eagle appeared on the right, the pyramid on the left, with the word ONE between them.
It was an unusual destination for a symbol that had begun as an official mark of government authority.
Then, in 1963, the first one-dollar Federal Reserve notes were issued. The design remained essentially the same, and the Great Seal stayed right where it was.
Consider how much had changed between those dates.
In 1782, the United States was still fighting for its independence. By 1935, it was struggling through the Great Depression. By 1963, it had become a major world power.
And today, the same founding symbols still appear on one of the country's most familiar objects.
A dollar bill isn't particularly impressive. It won't buy you much, and most of us barely look at it before handing it over.
But turn it over, and you're looking at a design that began with a question the founders couldn't answer for certain: What kind of country would the United States become?
The pyramid was left unfinished. The future hadn't been written yet.
More than two centuries later, that little piece of paper is still carrying the question.
References: National Archives · U.S. Department of State · Bureau of Engraving and Printing · Federal Reserve
Post a Comment
Have a thought or a question? We’d love to hear it.