The Coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia is a historical Croatian coat of arms in the shape of a shield. The chequered pattern has twenty five alternating red and white (silver) fields, so that the top left field is red. Above the shield is a crown divided into five smaller shields with historical coats of arms in the following order, left to right: the oldest known Croatian coat of arms, then the coats of arms of the Dubrovnik Republic, Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia. The height of the smaller fields in the crown is 2.5 times smaller than the height of the fields in the main shield, whilst the width of the fields is the same.
The oldest known Croatian Coat of arms has a yellow (golden) six pointed star and a white (silver) moon on a blue shield.
The Coat of arms of the Dubrovnik Republic consists of two red beams on a navy blue shield.
The Dalmatian Coat of arms consists of three yellow (golden) crowned leopard heads on a blue shield.
The Istrian Coat of arms consists of a yellow (golden) goat facing left with red hoofs and horns, on a navy blue shield.
The Slavonian Coat of arms consists of two horizontal white (silver) beams on a blue shield and a red field between the beams with a marten in motion facing left. There is a yellow (golden) six pointed star in the upper blue field.
The entire coat of arms is trimmed by a red line.
The Croatian Coat of arms was shown for the first time on a genealogy of the Habsburgs around 1512/1518. It is believed that this coat of arms appeared even earlier. It is also found on a remembrance thaler from 1525 and in the official seal of the Croatian Parliament elected in Cetin, from 1 January 1527 when Ferdinand I was elected King of Croatia.