The Turkey, the Pharaoh, and the One Dollar Bill

Dollar Turkey

You probably have a $1 bill in your pocket. It is so familiar to us that we don’t notice the symbols on the bill, yet if you look at them closely, the early history of the United States of America will appear before your eyes.

On the front is a portrait of George Washington, the first president of the United States. To his right is the seal of the Department of the Treasury. That name encircles the top half of the round seal. On the bottom is “1789,” the year the Treasury Department was established.

If you take a magnifying glass and examine the middle of the Treasury seal, you will see a scale with balanced arms, which symbolizes justice. Under the scale is a chevron with 13 stars, which represents the original 13 states. The number thirteen appears five times on the $1 bill. Below that is a key, which represents the authority of the government.

Turn the bill over and you see both sides of the Great Seal of the United States. On the right is the obverse, or front, of the Great Seal. This depicts an eagle holding 13 arrows in his left talon, which signifies war (as well as the original 13 states), and in his right talon he is holding an olive branch, which signifies peace.

Benjamin Franklin was strongly opposed to the depiction of an eagle, a bird which had, he said, “bad moral character.” Instead, he wanted a turkey, “a more respectable bird and…a true original native of America.” He was overruled. The shield on the eagle’s breast has 13 stripes representing the 13 original states as does the constellation of 13 stars above the eagle’s head.

To the left is the reverse of the Great Seal. Two of our most prominent founding fathers, Jefferson and Franklin, who were on the committee which designed the Great Seal (and took six years to do it), wanted the reverse of the Great Seal to show an Egyptian pharaoh in a chariot chasing the Israelites through the divided waters of the Red Sea. They did not get their wish.

Instead, the reverse of the Great Seal depicts an uncompleted Egyptian pyramid built with 13 rows of stones. On the bottom tier of stones are the Roman numerals for 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was issued.

In a semicircle under the pyramid are the Latin words novus ordo seclorum. This translates in English as “a new order of the ages,” meaning a democracy without a monarch, a form of government unknown in the world in that era.

At the top of the pyramid is an eyeball and above that is the Latin inscription annuit coeptis which means “providence (or God) has favored our undertakings,” meaning the formation of the United States. However, given the age of suspicion we live in, I tell people that the annuit coeptis means “we’ve got our eye on you.” And they believe me.

information about New Signature, a Washington DC tech solutions and consulting firm

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