The Heraldry Collection holds a total of 252 original items, dating from between the 17^th and the 20^th century: 218 coats of arm, 16 royal grants of coat of arms and 18 genealogies. An especially attractive part of the Collection are baroque coats of arms of noble families and prelates dating from the 17^th and the 18^th century, painted on wood, silk and glass; they represent the oldest and most valuable part of the Collection, while most of the items are metal coats of arms of high-ranking officers of the Croatian and Slavonian Military Border dating from the beginning of the 20^th century. The Collection also holds a large number of historical coats of arms of states, regions, counties, municipalities and towns made in the 19^th century using various techniques, primarily on paper, as well as several coats of arms of the Brotherhood of the Croatian Dragon. In recent years the Collection has made some new acquisitions, redesigned historical or newly designed coats of arms of Croatian towns, municipalities and counties whose heraldic and social evaluation is presently under way. Almost a half of the royal grants of coats of arms, as well as two genealogies from the Collection date back to the baroque period, while the rest is made up of items from the 19^th century and the first decade of the 20^th century. For this reason, and in spite of the small number of items, these two collections typologically represent all the stages of development and all the stylistic characteristics of their class.

Most of the coats of arms in the Collection were collected during the first half of the 20^th century – through donations of state, military and social institutions, an ones especially worthy of mention are the following: The Military Command in Zagreb, which donated a collection of 130 metal coats of arms of officers from the Military Border to the National Museum in 1918; The Cadet Academy in Kamenica, which donated 13 historical coats of arms of Austrian lands in 1919; The Commission for Collecting and Preserving Cultural Monuments (KOMZA), which donated 8 family coats of arms of the nobles who were the owners of Poznanovac to what was then the History Museum of Croatia in 1952; The Brotherhood of the Croatian Dragon, a part of whose property was kept at the Museum after the Brotherhood was disbanded in 1946; The Royal Regional Archives in Zagreb, which donated 4 coats of arms in 1900; The Architectural Department of the Royal Regional Government which donated 2 exhibits in 1908; The Parish Office in Lonja, which donated an exceptionally valuable baroque coat of arms in 1915; donators of modern coats of arms of towns include the National Library in Ivanic Grad, The Maritime Museum in Kotor, and The Council of the Split Municipality. The royal grants of coats of arms and genealogies were, for the most part, acquired through donations from and purchases from individuals, and for a relatively large number of them, as well as for a majority of state coats of arms an a small number of family coats of arms, we have no information about when and how they were acquired. However, it is interesting to note that the entire heraldry holdings of the Croatian History Museum are much greater than the holdings of the Heraldry Collection because a large number of coats of arms are “hidden” among almost all the other collections and objects in the Museum – in objects which range from seals, medals, flags, portraits, playing-cards and documents, to the collections of stone monuments, objects from everyday life, religious artefacts and weapons.

The Sphragistic Collection holds a total of 799 items dating from the period between the 16^th and 20^th centuries, and is made up of two basic parts with respect to their content and evolution. The first is made up of 424 metal seals, most of them brass, iron copper, which belonged to various social institutions of the Hapsburg and Austro-Hungarian Monarchy from the 16^th century onwards, as well as to noble and middle-class families or prominent individuals from that period. This segment of the Collection was founded and for the most part collected by the national Museum, but it was shaped as an independent and unique collection by the History Museum of Croatia. It is thematically divided into 14 basic groups: (1) seals of administrative institutions, (2) town seals, (3) court seals, (4) seals of financial, customs and post offices, (5) seals of military units and institution, (6) seals of schools and cultural institutions, (7) church seals, (8) seals of guilds and craftsmen, (9) merchants’ seals, (10) seals of farm estates and exhibitions, (11) seals of Napoleon’s Illyrian Provinces, (13) Turkish seals, (14) family and personal seals (both identified and unidentified). This last group, which is the largest in the Collection, includes a group of seals with monograms and initials, as well as a small but attractive collection of signet-rings. Most of the objects whose origin is known were obtained through donations by individuals and various social and state institutions, a smaller group was acquired through purchases, while there is no information about the way in which about 40 per cent of the objects, most of them signet-rings, were acquired

The second segment was added to the Sphragistic Collection of the Croatian History Museum after it was formed by the integration of two museums, by incorporating 375 more recent items from the Collection of Seals and Documents of the Museum of the Revolution of the Peoples of Croatia. This explains why this segment of the Collection contains items primarily from the period of World War II; with respect to the quality and material they are divided into two groups: (1) rubber stamps (improvised seals) made in Partisan-controlled regions during the Struggle for National Liberation, as well as in places where the antifascist civilian population of Croatia sought shelter, (2) metal seals belonging to institutions of the Independent State of Croatia and Italian occupying authorities in the territory of Croatia during World War II. Most of the objects are seals of Partisan administrative, military and political institutions; a smaller number are Ustashe and Italian seals, seals of economic, health, administrative and cultural and educational institutions (from both sources), while personal seals from this period are extremely rare. This segment of Collection was created during the final stages of and immediately after World War II through the planned and massive collection of material for the newly-founded Museum of the National Revolution.