Árpád stripes () is the name of a particular heraldic and vexillologic configuration which has been in constant use since the early 13th century in particular in Hungarian heraldry. It can be seen in the left half of the current coat of arms of Hungary. They have been associated with the founding dynasty of Hungary, with the House of Árpád, hence the name, but most later rulers and dynasties of Hungary adopted them in one form or another to stress their legitimacy to the Hungarian throne, e.g. by marshalling. The four silver stripes (often depicted as white) are sometimes claimed to symbolise "the four silver rivers" of Hungary—the Danube, Tisza, Sava and Drava. The Árpád stripes are heraldically "barry of eight gules and argent". In heraldry The first depiction of the Árpád stripes appear on a coat of arms in 1202 in the seal of King Emeric of Hungary, member of the Árpád Dynasty, though a debated striped banner makes its appearance already on silver coins minted by Stephen I. roughly two centuries earlier. It has ever since formed part of the coat of arms of the ruling dynasties of Hungary and of the coat of arms of the Hungarian state, most of the time, as it does today, impaling gules, on a mount vert a crown Or, issuant therefrom a double cross argent or marshalled with the Angevins’ azure, semé-de-lis Or. The Árpád stripes appear in many coat of arms of cities of the former Kingdom of Hungary, many of them now in the neighbouring countries of Hungary, such as Košice (Slovakia). The modern heraldic use of the Árpád stripes is featured in the seal of the National Security Office of Hungary since 2001. In vexillology The famous depiction of a banner with Árpád stripes showing King Béla III in one of the initials of the Chronicon Pictum dates to around 1360. The illustrations and decorative illuminations of the chronicle use the Árpád stripes on several occasion on banners (beside the mentioned initial it appears e.g. in the depiction of the Battle of Ménfő), shields, coat of arms (mostly marshalled with the Hungarian Apostolic Double Cross or the Angevin field azure semé-de-lis) or as the pattern of garment of Stephen I. However, after the Middle Ages the use of the Árpád stripes as a flag fell out of use and was continued only in heraldry. It was revived only