Last modified: 2014-07-05 by rob raeside
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We need to distinguish between two distinct phenomena:
Paraguay is the only country in the United Nations with a different backside.
The US State of Oregon has a Beaver on the reverse side.
Although none are official I think many historical US flags were different. I know of one in Kansas Archives that has 34 stars in the canton on the front and 13 on the back in X shape.
John Niggley, 30 August 1995
The US State of Massachusetts has a white field with a blue shield in the center. On the shield is a Indian in gold and a white five pointed star in the upper left corner. Above the shield is a gold arm and sword rising from a gold and blue cord. On the reverse is a blue shield with a green pine tree.
The former Ethiopian Imperial Standard had a representation of a lion on one side and St. George slaying the dragon on the other, both set on the Ethiopian tricolour of green-yellow-red.
Stuart Notholt, 03 September 1995
According to the
Romanian
president's web site and
Wikipedia, the
reverse of the Moldovan flag does not have the arms.
James Dignan and Alex
Danes, 13 August 2008 - although this claim is
disputed.
The USSR flag had in front a hammer and sickle and the back was a plain red flag with nothing on it. I'll admit that I had a bit of trouble finding a written reference again when I needed it, but from L. Mucha, W. Crampton, ed., Webster's Concise Encyclopedia of Flags & Coats of Arms, 1985:
"The flag was approved in 1923 and finally settled in 1924; the shape of the hammer and sickle was slightly corrected and exactly prescribed in 1955. In 1980 it was stipulated that the hammer, the sickle and the star appear only on the obverse side of the flag, the reverse being all red."
I've seen (and probably own) flags made following this regulation and others ignoring it completely.
Jon Radel, 03 September 1995
The US Marine Corps flag officially should have the backside as a reverse image except all lettering and the "continents" should be correct on both sides.
John Niggley, 30 August 1995
The flag of the Isle of Man has to be printed separately for each side due to the fact that the legs of the triskelion have to be seen to be standing the same way round from both sides. Presumably the same is true for countries with
asymmetrical crests on their flags (e.g., Croatia).
James Dignan, 30 August 1995
In fact the Croatian flag is made both printed "one sided", so the back side crown ("the zoo", as it is popularly called) is mirrored, and "two sided", in occasion when the coat of arms is applied to a tricolor flag, by means of sewing or glued, later especially often on small size flags.
Željko Heimer, 16 September 1995
The Saudi Arabian flag, has the lettering ("There is no God but God ....") also repeated on the back, properly reversed.
Ed Haynes, 30 August 1995
The new (post Gulf War II) Iraqi flag which, since it has an inscription on the flag (in this case, "God is Great") needs distinct obverse/reverse patterns.
Ed Haynes, 31 August 1995
The two sides [of the Brazil flag] will be
exactly equal, with the white stripe inclined from left to right (from
the point of view of an observer facing the flag), it being forbidden to
make one side as a mirror-image of the other.
translated by Joseph
McMillan, 29 August 2005