The word corresponding to the coat-of-arms in Georgian is the “sign”, which was later substituted by the Russian version that reached Georgia in the XVIII century. According to Ioane Batonishvili, they are the “signs of the rank and respect, presented in colour and adjusted fixed to the shields or the cores of the coat of arms in order to discern the families or descendants and the places and regions of the world” (“Kalmasoba”). It should be said that in the early Middle Ages the word “sign” was associated rather with the flag, because at that period, the proof of the social statute of the advanced class was particularly the flag. (77).

The Georgian state coat-of-arms has a documented history of three centuries. “It is as multifaceted and changeable, as the last three hundred years of our homeland” (47).

The first among the known ones is registered in Russia. In the 1672 Coat-of-arms Records (“Titular”) of Russian Tsar Alexi, it is mentioned as “the coat-of-arms of the Georgian kings of Kartli”. On the left side, the stylized shield presents an armored St.George on horseback, turned and facing the side unusual to heraldry; he has a white cross on the breast and is piercing a dragon with his lance. Another source, which also proves the Georgian coat-of-arms, is the diary of the Ambassador of the Roman Holy Empire, Austrian by origin, Korbi, who was to the court of Russian Tsar Fiodor Alexeevich. In the diary we again find the image of St.George, but the inscription bears only one name of “Kartalinia”.

“Titularnik” provides another example of the Georgian Coat-of-arms with the inscription of “the lands of Iveria” and a fire-exploding hill, pierced with two crossed arrows (47, pp.37-38) (see page 131).

In the chronological line of the Georgian state heraldry, the second place is attributed to the coat-of-arms of Vakhtang VI (see page 131), the earliest version of which we meet in the Epistles published in 1709 (67,p.94). “This is the first coat-of-arms known to us and created and recorded in Georgia. From now on, up to the period of joining Russia, the Georgian royal coat-of-arms coincides with the coat-of-arms of the ruling dynasty” (47, p.39).

In the XVII-XVIII centuries an image of the Shroud appears on the Georgian Royal Coat-of-arms. As it is known, Mtskheta is the resting place of the shroud of the Savior, and naturally, Georgian kings would claim the priority right to depict that on the state coat-of-arms. According to that composition, the Bagrationis are represented as the guards of the most cherished sanctity of the Christian world.

Vakhushti Bagrationi provides the data concerning the Georgian coat-of-arms. The general map of Georgia, published in 1735, presents “the coat-of-arms or signs” of the Georgian origin and of the countries – vassal-states of Georgia. Together with them, the Georgian state coat-of-arms are presented in the following way: the first depicts a rider, i.e. St.George piercing a dragon; the other state coat-of-arms presents a full figure of a winged warrior, soaked in light, with a sword in his hand - Archangel Gabriel, “the protector of the Eastern Church”; the third is known under the name of the “Royal Davitiani with the Shroud” and is the personal coat-of-arms of the king of Georgia, which – according to European tradition, was also used as the state coat-of-arms (see page 132).

Eventually, the state coat-of-arms of Bagrationis, was perfected and we see there three types of emblems:

After the annexation of Kartli and Kakheti by Russia in 1801, on May 21, 1843, Emperor Alexander I approved the coat-of-arms of “Sakartvelo-Imeretian gubernia” (in this case Sakartvelo signified the lands of kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti) and of the cities and towns of Tbilisi, Kutaisi, Gori, Telavi, Zakatala, etc.
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The heraldic coat-of-arms of the Georgian-Imereti gubernia is divided into four parts. Although the Georgian symbol – St.George’s image, without the halo, still persists in the middle, the remaining four parts present figures characteristic to Georgian, Armenian and in general, Caucasian environment. They are on the golden field and represent: 1) the Mountain of Ararat and Noah’s Arc (which is at the core of the coat-of-arms of the present day Armenia); 2) the Black sea; 3) the Caspian Sea, and 4) the snow-clad mountain of Kazbegi. The heraldic Shield of the coat-of-arms is crowned by a two-headed eagle of the Russian Empire (see page 131). This particular coat-of-arms presents a certain novelty – both, from the point of view of construction, and of the depicted material – and should be considered as a transitional stage to territorial coat-of-arms, that were created in the second half of the XIX century and were carried out in the perfected, unified and classical style. The said example also proves, that the specialists in heraldry of that period found it right to address historical material when dealing with the matter of genuine coat-of-arms. Apart from the fact that St.George piercing a dragon was a historical detail of Georgian coat-of-arms, another detail – of “the mountain of Ararat and Noah’s Arch on it” was a historical coat-of-arms of Armenia, which is proven on king Erekle II’s great seal of the state. A new and revised image of the Georgian-Imeretian gubernia coat-of-arms, approved on June 22, 1851, presented “the Kura (Mtkvari) and Arax” in the third sector of the shield – instead of “the Caspian sea” of the preceding version (77).

On October 29, 1870, the city and gubernia of Kutaisi coat-of-arms were aproved: a silver coloured “Golden Fleece” in the green field; July 5, 1878 – Tbilisi gubernia: a black cross and a red lion’s head in the golden field, and on June 16, 1881 – the coat-of-arms of the Batumi province: Byzantine golden coins in the red field, and a free (wavy) in the lower silver field (see page 134).

In the middle of the XIX century, the coat-of-arms of the so-called “Georgian kingdom” appeared on the wings of a two-headed eagle of the Russian Empire; it was shown with its rank crown – the factual owner of which was the Emperor of Russia, and was constituted correspondingly to the Tsar’s titulatory. The said coat-of-arms “of the Georgian kingdom” presented a shield divided into four parts with a small shield in the core and endings. In the golden field, the core of the shield makes St.George on a black horse killing a dragon; the first part is the coat-of-arms of Iveria (Kakheti in particular) - a silver ajilgha (wild horse) with two eight-pointed stars in the red field; the second part – is a coat-of-arms of Kartli – a green fire-erupting volcano with two crossed arrows (symbol of Amiran) in the golden field; the third part belongs to the coat-of-arms of Kabardin – the red crescent in the small red field with two crossed arrows and three silver six-pointed stars in the blue field; the fourth part is the Armenian coat-of-arms – the red crowned lion in the golden field; at the end of the field is an emblem of the Cherkessia and the highland princes – a Circassian rider on a black horse in the golden field (see page 131).

So, the Georgian national coat-of-arms, the symbol of territory – was a stylized heraldic rider St.George. After the successive period of relations with Russia, the shroud of Christ became the prevailing element of the royal coat-of-arms; as an emblem of Georgia, part of the Russian Empire, remained the Holy Rider – St.George, but without the halo, the fire - breathing mountain (symbol of Amiran) and ajilgha (the wild horse), but the shroud of Christ, as the symbol of the land of Georgia, remains only in the family coat-of-arms of Bagrationi (77).
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With the proclaimed independence of Georgia on May 26, 1918, the necessity to issue the national money - bonnes – brought about the necessity of creating a new coat-of-arms of the state. Irakli (Kaki) Tsereteli proposed the ruling party of Social Democrats the symbolic emblem of Amiran setting himself free, with a hand and a foot freed. This was also documented when the government published the terms of the competition s for the “specimen of money” on July 11, 1918.

This point of view and the concept of the state coat-of-arms caused a negative reaction of the Georgian society, particularly among the members of the Art Commission, whose reaction was diverse. After appealing to Iv.Javakhishvili, he delivered a speech and his proposal was approved: “The state coat-of-arms must represent white St.George with seven planets, since this image is connected with the existence of the Georgian nation.”

Besides, knowing the real attitude of the Mensheviks towards the religion (they insisted on issuing the law on the prohibition of teaching religion at school three times in succession during 1917-1918), Iv.Javakhishvili reported to the government, and said that removing the halo from the image of St.George, there will be nothing left of the religious content on the coat-of-arms.

On September 17, 1918, at the congress of the National Council, poet K.Makashvili, the chairman of the Arts Commission, read a bill about the coat-of-arms of the Republic of Georgia, abating that “It is impossible to conceive an image of a Georgian without the concept of Georgi, that is why the foreigners call our country the land of Giorgi, Georgia. And they will be greatly surprised, if they do not find the image of the best representative of the qualities of the Georgian people, the White Knight on horseback, the craved hero and the path-maker of the light road to the hopeful future of Georgia on the coat-of-arms of independent Georgia”. K.Makashvili noted also that: “I shall not say anything about the reason, why we do not invent something new for an emblem. Dream has no boundaries. It is possible to invent a lot of new and nice things, but it denotes that we as people, did not possess any beautiful and strong tradition, and while looking for a dubious gem we have lost a pearl”.

When discussing the bill, on behalf of the fraction of majority, Kaki Tsereteli made a proposal to choose Amiran for the republic’s coat-of-arms. He insisted to put the proposal for a vote by standing up, but Kaki Tsereteli’s proposal was rejected by 33 votes against 16 (one voter abstained) and on the 20th of September, “White Giorgi with seven planets” was approved as the coat-of-arms designed by painter Iosif Stableman (see page 135).

After the Sovietization of Georgia, a new coat-of-arms of the Soviet Socialist Republic was introduced (painted by Evgeni Lansere and Iosif Charlemagne), although very far from the norms of the classical heraldry, yet it looked much better than the coat-of-arms of other socialist republics of the USSR (47, p.47) (see page 135).