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told me: “The minor seal was created by a Secretary of State for Interior for use on his personal letters. The main seal was used on sealed missives for transmitting His Majesty’s commands. Later, whoever came to power would own a minor seal, despite having no duty to issue personal letters.”
As seen from the impressions on the Three Seals Code, the Seal of Royal Lion from the reign of King Rama I is different from the Seal of Royal Lion in use now. This is possibly because the old seal had been used to the point of being worn out or narrowed up and required recarving, but repeated recarving might then result in the seal needing to be made anew. (Recarving is carving on the existing lines to deepen them in order that they would be more distinct. Recarving a seal requires the same rite as carving a seal, that is, it would be done on an auspicious date amongst Buddhist priests chanting mantras and the seal would then be consecrated in the midst of a ritual congregation in the same manner as the rite for engraving a golden card,[b 1] with the only difference being that the recarving rite does not require the presence of a scrivener.) The technician who created the new seal might refrain from copying the old seal or he might even have not seen the old seal at all, for which reason the two seals are of different designs (said by HRH Prince Kromphrayā Naritsarānuwattiwong). After the change of the administrative regime to a constitutional one,[b 2] this Seal of Royal Lion is still in use as an emblem of the Ministry of Interior (see figure 26).
According to the Charter on the Use of Seals[b 3] under the old statute, in addition to the Seal of Royal Lion for Čhāophrayā Čhakkrīsīʿongkharak, the Civil Chancellor and Grand Chancellor,[b 4] there was another Seal of Royal Lion for Lūang ʿAmmāttayāthibǭdī, the interior officer in charge of the northern region. It is
