From the 14th century, if not earlier, Edinburgh, like Scotland's other royal burghs, used armorial devices in many ways, including on seals.

In Scotland, it is a statutory requirement to register armorial bearings with the Lord Lyon, who is responsible for regulating the system of Scottish heraldry, in a process known as "matriculation".

The subject was raised again in 1771, when the Lyon issued a general statement that "all persons whether Nobility, Gentry, Towns or Bodies Corporate, bearing arms any manner or way which are recorded in terms of the Act...to give in or send to the Lyon Office an account of such Arms and of the title whereby they claim to wear the same".

[3] On being sent a copy of this statement, the Council reacted by refusing to comply on the grounds that Scotland's royal burghs "had possessed the privilege of using seals and armorial bearings from a remote period which far outdated the Acts of 1592 and 1672, from which the Lord Lyon derived his jurisdiction, and that since neither of these Acts specifically mentioned the Burghs, they did not apply to them"[2] (presumably the same position that had been adopted in 1732).

[1] In 1996, further local government reorganisation resulted in the formation of the City of Edinburgh Council, and again the coat of arms was regranted.