Which is the only country whose flag differs on each side?

Paraguay's flag is three horizontal bands of red, white and blue, and the emblem in the middle of the white band is not the same on the two sides. The obverse carries the national coat of arms - a yellow star in a wreath of palm and olive, ringed with the words Republica del Paraguay. Turn it over and you get the seal of the treasury instead: a lion sitting in front of a staff topped with a red liberty cap, under the motto Paz y Justicia, peace and justice.

The design has been in use since 1842, and the two faces are doing different jobs. One says who the country is; the other says what it promises - the lion guarding the cap of a freed person is a piece of republican iconography borrowed from the French Revolution and, before that, from Rome.

The two faces are doing different jobs. One states who the country is; the other states what it promises. The lion guarding a staff topped with a red cap is republican iconography borrowed from the French Revolution and, before that, from Rome, where a freed slave was given such a cap to wear.