The oldest known coat of arms of Croatia contains in a shield on a light blue field a yellow (golden) six-pointed star with a white (silver) crescent.

The Dalmatian arms contain in a shield on a light blue field three yellow (golden) crowned lion heads.

The Istrian arms contain in a shield on a blue field a yellow (golden) goat facing left with red hooves and horns.

[3] Since the 15th century in various armorials existed also other rare variations, for example with three human heads instead, another with three running dogs (because in the German language the Slavs are also called Winden which reminds of "windhund"), and an arm brandishing a sword (originally of Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić, and later usually associated with the coat of arms of Bosnia and Herzegovina).

[7] A Split stone baptistry from the time of Peter Krešimir IV (r. 1058–1074/5) has engraved falcons that carry something that resembles a chequy on their wings, and the bell tower of the medieval Church of St. Lucy, Jurandvor has a checkerboard pattern carved onto it.

Recently modern scholars are arguing that the Croatian checkerboard CoA was probably created under the influence of the Habsburg dynasty, replacing the first CoA with leopard/lion heads (becoming attributed to the Dalmatia, meanwhile in Venetian Dalmatia was replaced by the Lion of Saint Mark[4]), which chekcerboard with red-white fields stylistically to the trend of the time denotes the walls and forts as Antemurale Christianitatis.

[9][2] The checkerboard coat of arms (šahovnica) is first attested as a decorative symbol of the Kingdom of Croatia on an Innsbruck tower depicting the emblem of Maximilian I, Archduke of Austria in 1495,[10][11][12] and Chiesa dei Domenicani in Bolzano, Italy also from the late 15th century.

[13][14] It officially appeared on a seal from the Cetingrad Charter that confirmed the 1527 election of Ferdinand I, Archduke of Austria as new king of Croatia.

During the change to multiparty elections in Croatia (as part of the collapse of Communist rule in Eastern Europe from the late 1980s), and prior to the establishment of the current design, the šahovnica, shedding the communist symbols that were the hallmark of Croatia in the second Yugoslavia, reappeared as a stand-alone symbol as both the 'upper left square red' and 'upper left square white' variants.

[19][20] On 21 December 1990, the post-socialist government of Croatia, passed a law prescribing the design created by the painter and graphic artist Miroslav Šutej, under the aegis of a commission chaired by Nikša Stančić, then head of the Department of Croatian History at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb.

The new design added the five crowning shields which represent Croatian historical coat of arms, out of which four regions of Croatia.

[4] The symbols of the crescent and moon were common at the time in Europe, and were borrowed from the previous coins minted by Archbishops of Salzburg in Friesach (hence the name).

[4] Traditionally this supposed coat of arms was depicted on red (gules) background such as the flag of the Triune Kingdom by Josip Jelačić in the 19th century.

[45] The first depictions are found on the maps of Johann Weikhard von Valvasor in the 17th century and later in Stemmatographia sive armorum Illyricorum delineatio, descriptio et restitutio (1701) by Pavao Ritter Vitezović.

Slavonia region – Coat of arms of Slavonia: Bleu celeste, a fess Gules fimbriated Argent surmounted by a mullet of six points Or, a marten Sable courant proper in chief – Six-pointed star (morning star, but Mars instead of Venus[2]) above two silver stripes on a blue shield (representing the rivers Drava and Sava marking the Northern and Southern border of Slavonia), between them a running Pine marten in natural colors (Kuna in Croatian – note the former currency Croatian kuna) on a red field.

This coat of arms was derived from an earlier version found on Slavonian Banovac coins minted between 1235 and 1384,[49] which showed a marten running on a field between two six-pointed stars.

[3][49][51] It is only Croatian land which has preserved original coat of arms and description, stating that it received because of the Slavonian peoples heroic defence against the Ottoman Turks, and considered as "a special shield or rather a bulwark of this our Hungarian kingdom".