Inscribed in an arc above the eagle is "UNITED STATES COAST GUARD"; below the eagle is the Coast Guard motto, "SEMPER PARATUS" ("Always Ready") and beneath that in Arabic numerals is "1790" (the year in which the service's ancestor, the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service, was founded).

In an 1840 painting, the Revenue cutter Alexander Hamilton flies a flag very similar to that of today's Coast Guard as a jack.

This flag, like the union jack, appears to be the canton or upper corner of the Revenue cutter ensign.

[1] An illustration in 1917 shows the Coast Guard standard as a white flag with a blue eagle and 13 stars in a semicircle surrounding it.

[1] The purpose of the flag is to allow ship captains to easily recognize those vessels having legal authority to stop and board them.