<P> After only 17 years, the seal was no longer making a good impression (probably due to a worn counterdie). On July 1, 1902, Congress passed an act to appropriate $1250 to have the seal recut . There was some discussion among State Department officials whether to redo the design again, but given the thought that had gone into the 1885 version, it was decided to recreate that design . Congress renewed the law on March 3, 1903, since no action had yet been taken, and this time specified that it be recut from the existing model which ended any further discussion . </P> <P> The die was engraved by Max Zietler of the Philadelphia firm of Baily Banks & Biddle in 1903 (and is thus sometimes called the 1903 die), but final delivery was delayed until January 1904 due to issues with the press . There were slight differences; the impressions were sharper, the feathers more pointed, and the talons have shorter joints . Also, two small heraldic errors which had persisted on all previous seal dies were fixed: the rays of the glory were drawn with dots to indicate the tincture gold, and the background of the stars was drawn with horizontal lines to indicate azure . </P> <P> The die was first used on January 26, 1904, and was used for 26 years . All dies made since have followed exactly the same design, and in 1986 the Bureau of Engraving and Printing made a master die from which all future dies will be made . The current die is the seventh, and was made in 1986 . </P> <P> In 1894 Palemon Howard Dorsett, a lifelong Department of Agriculture employee, turned up at the Department of State with a metal die engraved with the Great Seal, claiming it had originally been given to his family by a nephew of George Washington . It was examined by Gaillard Hunt, the author of a pamphlet on the Great Seal, who agreed that it appeared to be contemporaneous with the original 1782 seal, but he took no further interest in the matter . </P>

The image shows the coat of arms of the united states