Later seals did not show the billets and crosses with which the fields are spangled, but they reappeared in 1935, when the current arms were conferred.

An earlier town symbol, a cloverleaf (or heraldically, a trefoil), may explain the charge on the inescutcheon.

The highest elevation in the main town of Usingen is the Hohe Berg ("High Mountain"), 414 m above sea level.

Usingen (Latin Osinga), which in Frankish times likely existed as a fortified stopping place at an old crossroads, was first mentioned in the Codex Eberhardi, a manuscript from the Fulda monastery, and it is generally accepted that references made to the town go back to between 754 and 802.

The possibility therefore exists that today's Usingen might not lie on the same spot as it once did, having relocated at some time in the past.

In 1207, being on the outskirts of the Usinger Land, it passed into the ownership of the Counts of Diez, who had acquired this Imperial estate in exchange for Mainz-Kastell (fort).

As of 1659, the Counts resided in the castle, now converted into a stately home with a lovely garden, and from 1688 to 1744 the Princes of Nassau-Usingen lived there.

He governed for 43 years and was a respected commander, among other things field marshal of the Dutch States Army under William III of Orange.

On the lot where the house stood, where a bank building now stands, a memorial stone with a plaque recalls the important violinist.

The architect Friedrich Joachim Stengel (1694–1787) remodelled the Usinger Schloss into a Baroque residence between 1733 and 1738 as instructed by Princess Charlotte Amalie, Prince Wilhelm Heinrich I's widow.

Symmetrical rows of houses, which still form the townscape now, were built, and along the Obergasse (Upper Lane) appeared representative buildings.

The cliff wall is the visible part of a roughly six-kilometre-long quartz seam which continues slantwise across the Usa Valley to the Wormstein in Usingen town forest.

In summer, when the weather is good, it is the centre of attraction for many visitors from the Taunus and the Frankfurt Rhein-Main Region.

Usingen is home to a ground station with satellite dishes and various other antennas run by T-Systems.