A national coat of arms is a symbol which denotes an independent state in the form of a heraldic achievement.[1] While a national flag is usually used by the population at large and is flown outside and on ships, a national coat of arms is normally considered a symbol of the government or (especially in monarchies) the head of state personally and tends to be used in print, on armorial ware, and as a wall decoration in official buildings. The royal arms of a monarchy, which may be identical to the national arms, are sometimes described as arms of dominion or arms of sovereignty.[2]
An important use for national coats of arms is as the main symbol on the covers of passports, the document used internationally to prove the citizenship of a person. Another use for national coats of arms is as a symbol on coins of the associated state for general circulation.
For a symbol to be called a "national coat of arms", it should follow the rules of heraldry. If it does not, then the symbol is not formally a coat of arms but rather a national emblem. However, many unheraldic national emblems are colloquially called national coats of arms anyway, because they are used for the same purposes as national coats of arms.[3]
^Oswald, Gert (1984). "Staatswappen". Lexikon der Heraldik (in German). Mannheim/Vienna/Zurich: Bibliographisches Institut. p. 375. ISBN 3-411-02149-7.
^Friar, Stephen, ed. (1987). A New Dictionary of Heraldry. London: Alphabooks/A&C Black. p. 27. ISBN 0-906670-44-6.
^von Volborth, Carl-Alexander (1983). Heraldry: Customs, Rules and Styles. Ware, Hertfordshire: Omega Books Ltd. p. 11. ISBN 0-907853-47-1.
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