Most of the elements found in the coat of arms originate in the Great Seal of Vermont designed by Ira Allen.
Prior to the discovery of the 1807 banknotes, the earliest representation of the coat of arms of Vermont was found on an engraved 1821 state military commissions.
The exact designer is not known, but it is likely that then Secretary of State Robert Temple worked with an engraver in developing the arms.
The location of the cow and the sheaves (bundles of cereal grains) moved about the foreground, and the height of the pine tree and size of the buck's head also varied.
A state statute was approved in 1840, and modified in 1862, both attempts to codify and create more consistent representation of the arms.