Page "Great Seal of the United States" Paragraph 102

In a letter accompanying their designs, Tiffany gave their reasonings behind various elements.

The eagle was made as realistic as the rules of heraldry would permit, and the scroll style was chosen to least interfere with the eagle.

There were no stars in the chief ( the area at the top of the shield ), as is sometimes seen, as there are none specified in the blazon and thus including them would violate the rules of heraldry.

Some had suggested allowing the rays of the sun to extend through the clouds, as appears to be specified in the original law and sometimes seen in other versions, but Whitehouse rejected that idea and kept with the traditional die representation.

He also considered adding flowers to the olive branch, but decided against it, as " the unspecified number of flowers would be assumed to mean something when it would not ".