Richard Henry Lee to Samuel Adams

To be engraved on the great Seal / Virtus the genius of the commonwealth / dressed like an amazen, resting on a spear / with one hand, and holding a sword in the / other , & treding on tyranny represented by / a man prostrate, a Crown fallen from his head / a broken Chain in his left Hand and a Scourge / in his right. In the exergon the word Virginia / over the head of Virtus and underneath the words

sic semper tyrannis –

on the reverse a Group / Libertas , with her wand and pileus - on one side of her Ceres with the Cornucopia / in one hand and anear of Wheat in the other

On the other side Æternitas with the / Globe and Pheenix

In the exergon these words

Deus nobis haec Otia fecit "

Endorsed in the handwriting of Richard Henry Lee , "Device on the New Great Seal of Virginia ordered by Convention July 1776."