New York State Coat of Arms

The coat of arms centers on a heraldic shield supported by two standing figures. Above the shield, a bald eagle with spread wings perches on a globe. Below the shield, a ribbon carries the state motto Excelsior and, since April 9, 2020, a second motto: E Pluribus Unum.

The coat of arms and the state seal use the same design. The difference is that the state seal surrounds the design with a circular legend reading THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. The coat of arms appears without that border on state buildings, the governor's standard, and official documents where the full seal is not required.

New York adopted its coat of arms in 1777, the same year the state ratified its first constitution. The design was created by the Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York while the Revolutionary War was still being fought. British forces still occupied parts of New York when the design was finalized.

The convention chose Liberty and Justice as the two supporting figures because they expressed the philosophical argument behind the Revolution: that freedom and impartial law were equal foundations of republican government. The Hudson River landscape on the shield placed the design in New York's own geography rather than relying on purely abstract allegory.

The crown placed at Liberty's feet was not a subtle gesture. In 1777, with the war ongoing, it was a direct and public statement that New York had rejected the British monarchy. The design has kept that crown exactly where the founders put it.

On April 9, 2020, the New York Legislature updated both the state seal and coat of arms to add E Pluribus Unum beneath Excelsior on the ribbon. The figures, shield, eagle, globe, and crown remained unchanged.

The New York coat of arms arranges its elements around a central shield. Each figure and object was placed deliberately to make a specific argument about what the new state stood for in 1777.

Liberty and Justice face each other across the shield, but neither faces inward toward it. Both face outward, toward the viewer. The design presents them as principles the state claims, not as guardians protecting the shield from the outside.

The crown at Liberty's feet turns a standard allegorical figure into a specific historical statement. In most earlier European heraldry, Liberty simply carried her cap and pole. New York's designers added the discarded crown in 1777 to make the break from monarchy concrete and visible.

The rising sun on the shield aligns with the motto Excelsior. Both point upward and forward. The ships on the Hudson below the sun ground that aspiration in commerce and geography, showing that New York's idea of upward progress was tied to the work of trade and navigation, not to abstract philosophy alone.

The core composition of the New York coat of arms has remained stable since the Revolutionary era. Liberty, Justice, the Hudson River shield, the eagle on a globe, and the crown at Liberty's feet all continued unchanged through later standard renderings.

The only official symbolic change in recent law came on April 9, 2020, when New York added E Pluribus Unum beneath Excelsior on the ribbon. Earlier and current renderings on Wikimedia Commons make that ribbon change easy to see.