State of Colorado

 
ESmith
 
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ESmith
Total Posts:  550
Joined  15-11-2005
 
 
 
06 September 2006 17:18
 

Does any one know anything about the use of the shield in the seal of the US state of Colorado seen HERE?  Is it ever used just as a shield or always as part of the larger seal?  It is imminantly blazonable, not very heraldicly pleasant but blazonable….

 
Joseph McMillan
 
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Joseph McMillan
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Joined  08-06-2004
 
 
 
06 September 2006 18:11
 

I rather like the Colorado arms/seal—very distinctive—but in all the looking I’ve done, I’ve never seen anything official referring to it as arms or coat of arms, only as "seal." It did appear without the encircling ring and words of the seal on an early state flag, but I’ve been unable to find any current usage without the ring. Maybe Dennis has.

It’s too bad. There seems to have been a serious effort to be heraldic in the design. The law adopting the seal describes the design as "an heraldic shield." The 1877 law adopting it as the state seal (it had previously been the territorial seal) blazons it in more or less plain English as "An heraldic shield bearing in chief, or upon the upper portion of the same, upon a red ground, three snow-capped mountains; above, surrounding clouds; upon the lower part thereof, upon a golden ground, a miner’s badge, as prescribed by the rules of heraldry; as a crest above the shield, the eye of God, being golden rays proceeding from the lines of a triangle; below the crest and above the shield, as a scroll, the Roman fasces bearing upon a band of red, white and blue the words, ‘Union and Constitution;’ below the whole the motto, ‘Nil Sine Numine.’ (Source: Zieber’s American Heraldry)

 

Or as we might blazon the shield heraldically: "Or a miner’s pick and hammer in saltire proper on a chief Gules three mountains capped with snow and above them a bank of clouds proper."

 
Donnchadh
 
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Donnchadh
Total Posts:  4101
Joined  13-07-2005
 
 
 
06 September 2006 22:55
 

I’ve always seen it as a part of a seal except on one case. That being embroidered on the seats of the state legislature, which were a deep, rich green - not quite forest, but not quite emerald either. That was back in 1999/2000 I believe. It may have changed. Otherwise I’ve only ever seen it as part of the seal of our state.

I rather like it myself and considering when it was made and the fact that it really, really could’ve been a whole lot worse. Could it be cleaned up? I think so. But, I’m not sure the legislature would ever go for that.

 

As for the "eye of God" at top, I was always told in Colorado history and as verbal tradition that it was put there by the Freemasons. The Freemasons were very influential in getting this territory organized and then in forming the Denver political machine. They were later displaced by the secretive KKK (roughly 1905-1930s), of which several notable politicians - Stapleton - as well as Speer - were very involved in. But historically there was a strong Freemason connection with the founding of this state and the organization of the territory before that. The "eye" was always seen as a reminder of that.

 

Here’s the basic info from the state’s own site:

http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit/archives/history/symbemb.htm#Seal