homberg was granted town rights in 1231, and the first known seal dates from 15 years thereafter, namely 1246. its tinctures, however, are unknown, and it only shows one lion. another seal used as early as 1239, but known only from later examples, bore the barry (that is, horizontally striped) lion of hesse. in the 14th century, another charge in the arms’ base was a mount of three, but later on, this was somehow mistaken for a lion above two smaller ones. furthermore, the smaller lions in base numbered three up until 1639, but ever since, there have been only two.