In June 1913, the commission filed its report adopting the general design of the Territorial Seal, substituting only the date 1912.

It is taken from the epic poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things), Book VI, line 341, by the first-century B.C.

Roman poet Lucretius, where it refers to a thunderbolt increasing in strength as it moves across the sky, referenced by the selectors of the motto as a symbol of dynamic progress.

[4] Lines 340-344: Denique quod longo venit impete, sumere debet mobilitatem etiam atque etiam, quae crescit eundo et validas auget viris et roborat ictum; nam facit ut quae sint illius semina cumque e regione locum quasi in unum cuncta ferantur, omnia coniciens in eum volventia cursum.

forsitan ex ipso veniens trahat aere quaedam corpora quae plagis incendunt mobilitatem.

Translated as : Again, because it comes from a long distance, it must acquire more and more mobility which grows by moving and increases its massive strength and hardens its impact.

The original seal has long since disappeared, possibly as part of the artifacts placed into the cornerstone of the Soldiers' Monument in the Santa Fe Plaza.

Imprints of the original seal show it consisted of the American eagle, clutching an olive branch in one talon and three arrows in the other.

The outside rim of the seal contained the words "Territory of New Mexico," with the date of 1850 along the bottom in Roman numerals.