Chapter VIII: The Fourth Seal

In 1902, John Hay being the Secretary of State, it was determined that the seal, which had been in constant use for eighteen years, required recutting, and that the press and stand which held it could be improved upon. An act was, accordingly, passed by Congress (July 1, 1902) appropriating $1,250 “To enable the Secretary of State to have the Great Seal of the United States recut.” Some discussion arose among the officers of the Department as to whether the design then in use must be adhered to strictly or could be improved upon, and, after examination of the question, it was determined that the careful investigation which had preceded the acceptance of the design of 1884 rendered a reconsideration of the decision then arrived at unwise, and that the design should be preserved with absolute accuracy. The work of recutting not having been done before the appropriation had expired, it was renewed the following year (act of March 3, 1903) and the act settled definitely any remaining doubts about the design, besides making the appropriation cover the necessary accessories for the seal. It read:

To enable the Secretary of State to have the Great Seal of the United
States recut from the original model, and to purchase a suitable press
for its use and a cover to protect the same from dust, the sum of one
thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, appropriated by the deficiency
act approved July first, nineteen hundred and two, “To enable the
Secretary of State to have the Great Seal of the United States recut,”
is hereby reappropriated for the purposes above mentioned.

The words “original model” in the law precluded any change in the device, and the new seal was accordingly cut as a precise copy of the seal then in use, the work being done by Messrs. Bailey, Banks & Biddle, of Philadelphia.