She holds a fasces and is supported by a ship's tiller with a cock carved or printed on it, representing the Gallic rooster (le coq gaulois), a symbol of the Gauls and early French nation.
At her right, in the background, are symbols of the arts (painter's tools), architecture (Ionic order), education (burning lamp), agriculture (a sheaf of wheat) and industry (a cog wheel).
The reverse bears the words "AU NOM DU PEUPLE FRANÇAIS" ("in the name of the French people") surrounded by a crown of oak (symbol of perennity and justice) and laurel (symbol of glory) leaves tied together with wheat and grapes (agriculture and wealth), with the circular national motto "LIBERTÉ, ÉGALITÉ, FRATERNITÉ".
Anthropologists have argued that every society needs a "center" which includes social and political mapping that gives the people a sense of their place.
In the traditional model of authority, "the king was the sacred center and culture was firmly fixed in the longstanding notions of a catholic hierarchical order.
Revolutionaries began iconoclastically destroying tangible reminders of the Old Regime, such as breaking the seals of royalty, the scepter and the crown and melting them into republican coins.
[5] Yet as Henri Grégoire argued, civilized people found that "a sign, a type, was necessary to give character to authenticity" to all public acts.
[5] The nation would only be recognizable by its public symbolic representation, and hence it was agreed that a new seal of state would be created to give the new republic a sense of permanence.
"[7] In order to dispel all traces of monarchical influence, the members of the National Convention "proposed the choice of Liberty.
The Phrygian cap worn by this figure of liberty was representative of the inherent freedom of the French people and provided a sharp contrast to the crown of the monarchy.
"[10] She was depicted as "a woman holding a stave surmounted by a cap and trampling a yoke underfoot; this is the emblem that the ancients gave to Liberty won through valor.
In addition, Marianne's close resemblance to the Catholic figure of Mary created unity between the rational revolutionaries and the devout peasantry.
99-569 of July 8, 1999 on equality between women and men, sealed March 8, 2002, two and a half years after the entry into force of the law.
The Empire sealed on wide yellow and blue silk ribbons; the Republic and the Consulate, on a tricolor braid.