How does Sacred Cod elucidate its Significance?
Codfishing was the first industry practiced by Europeans in Massachusetts, and it is said that the colony's first export was a cargo of fish.[C]: 23 
Thus the codfish has been an important New England symbol for centuries, its image appearing on many early coins, stamps, corporate and government seals, and insignia such as the early crest of the Salem Gazette.
In 1743 a prominent Salem businessman built a mansion in which "the end of every
stair in his spacious hall [displayed] a carved and gilded codfish", [C]: 34-36 
and in the 19th century the nouveau riche merchant families of New England were sometimes referred to, disparagingly, to as the "codfish aristocracy".In the late 1920s an "amusing" (as author H. P. Lovecraft termed it)
codfish emblem appeared briefly, "totem-like",
on Massachusetts license plates.
Cod New England Salem Gazette H. P. Lovecraft Salem Massachusetts license plates Massachusetts