The seal of San Francisco, California, which was adopted in the 1850s, depicts two working men, on one side a miner and, on the other, a sailor with a sextant. Above is a rising phoenix and behind it is the San Francisco Bay with sailing ships. The phoenix symbolizes the city's emergence from the ashes of several devastating fires in the early 1850s. The motto reads "Oro en paz, fierro en guerra" which is Spanish for "Gold in peace, iron in war".
