The present-day coat of arms was adopted by Domnitor (Ruling Prince) Alexandru Ioan Cuza, and changed under the Communist regime.

[4] According to Constantin C. Giurescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza changed the seal to depict the patron saint and an image of the mythical shepherd Bucur.

[2] The arms were enlarged after World War I, when the mural crown and all other present-day elements were added, while the image of Bucur was removed.

Then a new coat of arms was adopted, which lasted until the Romanian Revolution of 1989; it represented "the most characteristic elements of historical traditions and of political, economic and social relations".

[5] The 1970 coat of arms consisted of an escutcheon divided party per fess; chief, landscaped, an eagle, or, wings displayed, facing sinister, over the image of the Palace of the Patriarchate, argent, on an azure field; over a cogwheel, or, with an open book with the lettered motto CIVITAS (verso) and NOSTRA (recto) (reading "Civitas Nostra" (Latin for "Our City"), or, on a field, gules; with an inescutcheon divided party per pale, dexter a hammer and sickle (symbol of the Romanian Communist Party)) on a field, gules, sinister the flag of Romania, the inescutcheon charged with the crest of Communist Romania.