Front:
Vignettes of Americana
issued for the new Lostage Rates
1976
E PLURIBUS UNUM
USA 13c
FIRST DAY OF ISSUE
1975
9980
The American Bald Eagle
National Emblem ofthe United States
By Actof Congress
782
Yficial Tirst Day Cover
AK
ONE NATION INDIVISIB,
Back:
Heetwood
13c AMERICAN EAGLE AND SHIELD
Not only was July 4, 1776, noted as the day when the
Declaration of Independence was adopted, it was also the
day when the Continental Congress appointed a
committee “to bring in a device for a seal of the United
States of America.” Three famous men, members of
many other committees, comprised this new group:
Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams.
Nearly six years passed before Congress could agree on
an emblem. Finally on June 20, 1782, William Barton's
design was approved. It shows an American bald eagle
(Haliaetus leucocephalus) bearing a ribbon in its beak
bearing the inscription E pluribus unum (One out of
many.) As symbols of war and peace, the eagle grasps a
bundle of thirteen arrows in one foot, and an olive branch
in the other. Protected in all states, our national bird is
the only eagle whose exclusive home is North America.
Some years following the adoption of the American bald
eagle for the Great Seal, Franklin wrote a friend, “I wish
the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative
of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like
those among men who live by sharping and robbing,
he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a
much more respectable bird, and withal a true original
native of America.”
