The Great Seal of North Carolina is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the Government of North Carolina. The Great Seal was modified to its present form in 1983. 'The background on the seal shall contain a depiction of mountains running from the left to the right to the middle of the seal. A side view of a three-masted ship shall be located on the ocean and to the right of Plenty. The date 'May 20, 1775' shall appear within the seal and across the top of the seal and the words 'esse quam videri' shall appear at the bottom around the perimeter. No other words, figures or other embellishments shall appear on the seal (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)