Great Seal of South Carolina

The sabal palmetto stands at the center of the obverse. Its presence on the seal is tied to one specific military event: the Battle of Fort Sullivan on June 28, 1776. The fort on Sullivan's Island was built from palmetto logs, and those logs proved unexpectedly resilient against British cannon fire. The dense, fibrous wood absorbed shot rather than splintering.

At the base of the palmetto lies a fallen oak tree. British warships of the era were built from oak, the standard timber for naval construction, and the image directly represents the defeated British fleet that attacked Sullivan's Island in 1776. The oak is shown uprooted and broken beneath the standing palmetto.

Twelve spears are bound to the trunk of the palmetto on the obverse. They represent the other twelve American colonies allied with South Carolina at the time the seal was designed in 1776, when the thirteen original colonies were fighting together for independence.

'Animis Opibusque Parati' is Latin for 'Prepared in mind and resources.' The phrase appears on the obverse, above the palmetto tree. William Henry Drayton selected it in 1776 to assert that South Carolina entered the Revolution with both the will to fight and the material capacity to do so.

The reverse shows Spes, the Roman goddess of hope, walking along a beach at dawn. She holds a laurel branch in one hand. At her feet lie discarded British weapons: swords, muskets, and military equipment. The scene translates the reverse motto's concept into a specific historical image.

'Dum Spiro Spero' is Latin for 'While I breathe, I hope.' The phrase appears on a ribbon above the Spes scene on the reverse. It is attributed to Cicero and was used as a personal motto by King Charles I of England during his imprisonment by Parliament in the 1640s; Charles inscribed the words in a Shakespeare folio.