Talk:Coat of arms of Alabama

Coat of arms of Alabama is within the scope of the Heraldry and vexillology WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of heraldry and vexillology. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.Heraldry and vexillologyWikipedia:WikiProject Heraldry and vexillologyTemplate:WikiProject Heraldry and vexillologyheraldry and vexillology articles

Alabama

This article is part of WikiProject Alabama, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Alabama on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page to join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.AlabamaWikipedia:WikiProject AlabamaTemplate:WikiProject AlabamaAlabama articles

Official status?

I thought that U.S. states normally only used seals. Does this symbol have any official status, and if so does anybody know why Alabama has both a seal and a coat of arms? Valentinian ^{(talk) / (contribs)} 10:59, 24 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

@Valentinian (and anyone else reading this 12 years later): Yes, it was adopted by an act of the state legislature. States seem to be free to adopt any symbols they see fit (see List of U.S. state tartans). Strictly speaking, a seal is for authenticating documents, and a coat of arms is for identifying the affiliation or ownership of a person, organization or piece of property. In US use, a government seal often includes the corresponding coat of arms in its design, and the two may be used interchangeably. Ibadibam (talk) 22:48, 27 March 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply. :) Valentinian ^{T / C} 19:56, 3 May 2018 (UTC)[reply]