That flat-topped pyramid and floating eye on the back of the one dollar bill have fueled endless conspiracy theories, but the documented history is far more interesting. This deep dive decodes the Great Seal of the United States, from the bald eagle, olive branch, arrows, and E Pluribus Unum on the front to the unfinished pyramid, Eye of Providence, and Latin mottos on the reverse.

We explore the obsession with the number 13, how the designers bent the rules of heraldry, and why the eye was a common Christian symbol rather than a Masonic code. Then we follow the six-year process through three committees, including rejected ideas from Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams, until Charles Thomson synthesized the final design, approved by Congress on June 20, 1782.

• What the red, white, and blue mean in the seal’s heraldic tradition
• Why the Freemasons did not adopt the Eye of Providence until 1797
• Contributions from Pierre Du Simitiere, Francis Hopkinson, and William Barton
• How the State Department’s 1903 seal press embosses treaties and appointments
• Why no die has ever been made for the pyramid side, which reached the dollar bill in 1935