So I've got a coat of arms, what shall I do with it?

[Chris Green]

An excellent endeavour. They take one's eyes up to the rather interesting buildings and away, at least for a moment from the all too tawdry offerings below.

[Kathy McClurg]

How about a mousepad... yeah, so... I got carried away..

[Iain Boyd]

Well done!

Regards,

Iain Boyd

[Edward Hillenbrand]

I saw Kathy's post of all the items she has her arms on and realized I have two seals: one is my NYS Notary Seal with New York's arms on it and the other is my signet ring that I use to seal some correspondence with, much to the postman's disgust -- messes up their machines. How many others of us have this problem?

[Kathy McClurg]

I saw Kathy's post of all the items she has her arms on and realized I have two seals: one is my NYS Notary Seal with New York's arms on it and the other is my signet ring that I use to seal some correspondence with, much to the postman's disgust -- messes up their machines. How many others of us have this problem?

I have been conducting a great seal experiment on social media with some very good friends... I bought my whole family heraldic seals for Christmas (8 of us) and wanted to "test" things. I've got 19 participants worldwide. I sent the first round with no special markings:

Within Virginia:


To the UK:




Then, under instruction of the post office people.. I marked them non-machineable and hand stamp (and paid for it):
Same location in VA:

Same Location to UK:


The best result was first round (no special markings) which travelled 1100KM. This wax was bought from a local wedding store because I ran out.. it has no manufacturer marking and was harder to work with (hardened WAY fast)


The was was suppose to be the flexible, mail-able kind... but, as you see.. it didn't hold up well AND the post office ignored my markings after they told me to do it.. so.. I will be putting an illustrated "note" together for the postmaster general and all levels of between him and I.. AND I shall be doing one more mailing with a was recommended by friends online.. which will include a seal outside and inside sometime in the near future - possibly as part of my personal IHD 2015 celebrations.. Unknown yet...

I haven't fully "broken the code" on getting decent seals consistently through the post.. I may not.. but it's been fun!

[Edward Hillenbrand]

Kathy, I think the code to getting items through the USPO safely s to use FedEx or UPS.

[Mark Henderson]

I would think that one's personal arms would look rather nicely engraved on an Oak barrel. http://www.barrelsonline.com/default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

http://www.barrelsonline.com/images/fullscreen/crest1.jpg

[Mike_Oettle]

For my money a seal would have more usefulness than a barrel — no room in my house for such a big thing.
And I would probably use the seal on letters and other documents, rather than on envelopes. The South African Post Office is no better than its US counterpart (and often considerably worse), so I would not trust them to the sorting machines.

In response to Arthur Radburn, I would prefer not to join in with Steytlerville’s armorial display because all those arms are either lifted from Pama’s Groot Afrikaanse Familienaamboek or rather amateurishly concocted for families with no armorial history.

[Michael F. McCartney]

Apologies if already mentioned, but how about an embosser (if that's the correct term) like that used in some jurisdictions for certified or notarized documents, marking library books, etc.? The embossed image should survive the slings and arrows of outrageous postal systems better than a wax seal. Depending on the particular style of embosser, it should be possible to emboss the arms on envelope flaps or on sticky foil seals for sealing the envelope.

And if the upper seal matrix is removable from the embosser, it could do double duty for wax seals, though without the level of fine detail of an actual signet or a seal matrix carved for sealing wax.

[Mark Henderson]

For my money a seal would have more usefulness than a barrel — no room in my house for such a big thing.
And I would probably use the seal on letters and other documents, rather than on envelopes. The South African Post Office is no better than its US counterpart (and often considerably worse), so I would not trust them to the sorting machines.

In response to Arthur Radburn, I would prefer not to join in with Steytlerville’s armorial display because all those arms are either lifted from Pama’s Groot Afrikaanse Familienaamboek or rather amateurishly concocted for families with no armorial history.

Mike, They have several sizes on the website. I was thinking of a small tabletop size barrel next to my Scotch collection.