Stamp

A stamp is a distinctive mark or impression made upon an object, for instance those made on a piece of paper and used to indicate the prepayment of a fee or tax. A postage stamp is adhesive paper evidence of a fee paid for postal services. Usually a small rectangle attached to an envelope, the stamp signifies the person sending it has fully or partly paid for delivery. Postage stamps are the most popular way of paying for retail mail; alternatives include prepaid-postage envelopes and postage meters. The study of postage stamps is philately. Stamp collecting is the hobby of collecting stamps.

Revenue stamps are securities, usually printed by the finance ministry of the relevant country. In many countries, they are as detailed in their design as banknotes; they are often made from the same type of paper as banknotes and many contain holograms and other anti-counterfeit devices. The reason for these measures is that excise duty is extremely expensive, in most EU countries accounting for around half the market price of the product.

Rubber stamping, also called stamping, is a craft in which some type of ink made of dye or pigment is applied to an image or pattern that has been carved, molded, laser engraved or vulcanized, onto a sheet of rubber. The rubber is often mounted onto a more stable object such as a wood, brick or an acrylic block to produce a more solid instrument. The ink coated rubberstamp is then pressed onto any type of medium such that the colored image has now been transferred to the medium. The medium is generally some type of fabric or paper. Other media used are: wood, metal, glass, plastic, rock. High volume batik uses liquid wax instead of ink on a metal stamp.

Rubber stamps for business are custom-made, showing an address, a corporate logo or something similar, or they are bought ready-made. They often have movable parts that allow the user to adjust the date or the wording of the stamp. They are still often used to date incoming mail, memos and similar items, as well as to denote special handling of the document. There are about 10-15 large to medium sized businesses in the UK that are producing stamps of all kinds all day every day. Many smaller businesses exist producing just a few daily.