Georgia State Coat of Arms

The coat of arms appears on Georgia's state seal, state flag, and official documents. It is the central design element on the seal, which Georgia has used on legal papers and official correspondence since the eighteenth century.

The design has remained essentially unchanged since 1799. The Georgia General Assembly made one documented modification in 1914 — a change to the date displayed on the seal.

Georgia first established a state seal in its 1777 Constitution. That original design was entirely different from the current one. It showed an agricultural and maritime scene — buildings, fields, livestock, a river, and a ship under sail — along with two Latin mottos: Pro bono publico (For the public good) and Deus nobis haec otia fecit (God has given us this ease).

The Legislature replaced the 1777 design on February 8, 1799, with the three-pillar design still used today. The new design drew on classical principles of civic government rather than landscape imagery.

In 1914, the Georgia General Assembly changed the date shown on the seal from 1799 to 1776 to mark the year of American independence rather than the year the seal was adopted.

During Reconstruction, from 1868 to 1871, an unofficial version of the seal circulated in which the soldier's sword appears in the opposite hand. Historians call this the Period of the False Seal. The correct orientation was restored when Georgia resumed home rule in 1871.

The Georgia coat of arms is organized around three pillars, an arch, and a soldier. Each element has a specific civic meaning tied to the state's founding principles.

The design places the Georgia Constitution at the literal top of the image, supported by the three pillars of government. This arrangement shows that the three branches exist to uphold the Constitution.

The soldier with the drawn sword completes the argument. A document alone cannot defend itself. The soldier shows that Georgia commits force to the protection of its constitutional order.

The three values — Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation — describe how Georgia expects its government to act. The design does not promise outcomes; it names the standards Georgia holds itself to.

Georgia used a completely different seal design in 1777, but the modern coat of arms lineage begins with the legislative redesign of February 8, 1799. That redesign introduced the three pillars, the Constitution arch, the soldier, and the motto still associated with Georgia today.

Later changes were mostly standardizing changes rather than symbolic redesigns. The most important surviving version before the current standard is the long-used 1799 design tradition. In 1914, the General Assembly standardized the official rendering and changed the date shown on the seal to 1776.