Detail of a $50 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Currency" class="extiw" title="w:Continental Currency">Continental Currency</a> note from 1778.  The note was designed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Hopkinson" class="extiw" title="w:Francis Hopkinson">Francis Hopkinson</a>, and this unfinished pyramid design was a precursor to the reverse side of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Seal_of_the_United_States" class="extiw" title="w:Great Seal of the United States">Great Seal of the United States</a>, which Hopkinson later worked on, though using different designs.  Later in the Great Seal process, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Barton" class="extiw" title="w:William Barton">William Barton</a> took this pyramid and added the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_Of_Providence" class="extiw" title="w:Eye Of Providence">Eye Of Providence</a> overhead (itself taken from a still earlier Great Seal attempt).
Francis Hopkinson (original note)
<p>Extracted from PDF version of <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://diplomacy.state.gov/exhibitions/100935.htm">Seals and Symbols in the American Colonies</a> poster, part of a U.S. Diplomacy Center (State Department) exhibition on the 225th anniversary of the Great Seal.  Direct PDF URL <a rel="nofollow" class="external autonumber" href="http://diplomacy.state.gov/documents/organization/101209.pdf">[1]</a> (21MB)<br></p>
Courtesy of the Department of Special Collections of the University Libraries of Notre Dame.