British Coat of Arms - Uses

Uses

The Royal Arms as shown above may only be used by the Queen herself. They also appear in court rooms, since the monarch is the fount of justice in the UK and the law Court is part of the Court of the monarch (hence its name). Judges are officially representatives of the crown, demonstrated by the Queen's Coat of Arms which sits behind the judge on the wall of every court in the land, with the exceptions of the magistrates court in the City of London, in which a sword stands vertically behind the judge which is flanked by the arms of the City and the Crown. Also, in Northern Ireland, the Royal Arms must not be displayed in any courtroom, excepting the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast, the courts in Armagh, Banbridge, Downpatrick, Magherafelt, or Omagh and on the exterior of an existing court where they were displayed immediately before 2002.

The British Government also uses the Royal Coat of Arms as a national symbol of the United Kingdom, and, in that capacity, the Coat of Arms can be seen on several government documents and forms, passports, in the entrance to embassies and consulates, etc. However, when used by the government and not by the sovereign herself, the coat of arms is often represented without the helm. This is also the case with the sovereign's Scottish arms, a version of which is used by the Scotland Office.

The Royal Arms have regularly appeared on the coinage produced by the Royal Mint including, for example, from 1663, the Guinea and, from 1983, the British one pound coin. In 2008, a new series of designs for all seven coins of £1 and below was unveiled by the Royal Mint, every one of which is drawn from the Royal Arms. The full Royal Arms appear on the one pound coin, and sections appear on each of the other six, such that they can be put together like a puzzle to make another complete representation of the Royal Arms.

The Queen awards Royal Warrants to various businesses that supply the Royal Household. This allows the business to display the Royal Arms on their packaging and stationery.

A banner of the arms, the Royal Standard is flown from the Royal Palaces when the Queen is in residence; and from public buildings only when the Queen is present. At royal residences such as Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace, the Queen's main residence, the Royal Standard is flown to indicate when the monarch is in residence. This protocol equally applies to the monarch's principal residences in Scotland, (the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Balmoral Castle), where the Royal Standard as used in Scotland is flown. When the monarch is not in residence the Union Flag, or in Scotland the ancient Royal Standard of Scotland, is flown.

A design similar to The Royal Arms is also a symbol for all the courts in British Columbia, Canada, as the Commission under which judges sit within its courts' rooms.

The royal arms is also used as a symbol for all the State courts and Viceroys of Australia to represent the power of the monarchy.