5.3 Seal and Stamp Requirements

The Required Utah Stamp

Utah requires every notary to authenticate acts with an official seal (ink stamp) that meets exact specifications in statute and Utah Admin. Code R623. A missing, illegible, or non-conforming seal can render a notarization defective and expose the notary to a complaint with the Lieutenant Governor's Office.

Physical specifications

Why purple? Purple ink photographs and copies in a distinctive way, so a reviewer can tell an original notarized document from a black-and-white photocopy. This is a favorite exam point — the correct answer is always purple, never black or blue, for the physical stamp.

Required Stamp Elements

The impression must contain all of the following:

Notice what is not on the stamp: the notary's home address, phone number, or personal logo are not required and should not appear (address is a privacy concern). A common exam distractor lists the home address as "required" — it is not.

Sample layout

+-----------------------------------------+
| [Great Seal   JANE DOE                   |
|  of Utah]     NOTARY PUBLIC              |
|               STATE OF UTAH             |
|               Commission #12345678      |
|               My Commission Expires:    |
|               January 1, 2028           |
+-----------------------------------------+

Embossing Seals — Supplemental Only

An embosser alone is invalid because a raised, colorless impression does not photocopy, defeating the photographically-reproducible requirement. The purple ink stamp is always mandatory; the embosser is optional decoration on top of it.

When and Where the Seal Goes

The seal must be affixed at the time of the notarization and placed near the notary's signature on the notarial certificate — close enough to be clearly associated with that signature, but positioned so it does not obscure any printed text, signature, or required certificate wording. If the impression smudges or prints incompletely, the notary should re-stamp in a clear adjacent space rather than over the spoiled impression; many notaries draw a single line through a bad impression and place a clean one beside it.

A Utah seal is required on every notarial act that produces a paper certificate — acknowledgments, jurats, copy certifications, and signature witnessings alike. The only acts a notary performs without affixing the stamp to a document are purely oral acts such as administering a verbal oath or affirmation where no written certificate is created; even then, the act should be logged. Pre-stamping blank certificates or loose sheets of paper is strictly prohibited — the seal may never be applied before the signer appears and the act is completed, because a pre-sealed blank can be used to fabricate a notarization.

The notary, not the signer or a third party, controls the stamp throughout the act. The signer never handles the seal. A notary may not allow an employer, title company, or co-worker to keep or use the stamp, even when the notary works for that company — the commission and its seal belong to the individual notary personally and travel with that person if they change jobs.

Security, Loss, and Electronic Seals

Seal security duties:

• Keep the stamp under your sole control; never lend it or let anyone else use it.
• Destroy the stamp when your commission expires, is resigned, or is revoked, and never use it afterward.

If the seal is lost or stolen: notify the Lieutenant Governor's Office promptly, note the loss in your journal, and order a replacement bearing identical information. Prompt reporting limits your liability if the missing stamp is later used fraudulently.

Electronic seal (RON): Remote Online Notaries also use an electronic seal obtained through the approved RON platform. It carries the same required textual elements plus a digital timestamp, and — because it is rendered digitally and tamper-sealed — it is not subject to the purple-ink rule (it is typically displayed in black). The electronic seal is attached to the electronic document together with the notary's electronic signature, and both must be tamper-evident so that any change to the document after sealing is detectable.

Exam Hot Spots

• Shape/size: rectangular, ≤ 1" x 2.5"; ink: purple.
• Required text: name, Notary Public, State of Utah, expiration, commission number, great seal of Utah.
• Home address is NOT required.
• Embosser: only with the ink stamp, never alone.
• Destroy the seal when the commission ends; never use it after expiration.

How Utah's Seal Rules Compare

Utah's seal scheme has two features the exam loves to contrast with other states. First, the purple ink mandate (effective for seals obtained on or after July 1, 2003) is unique — no other state requires purple, and many simply require a "photographically reproducible" dark ink. Second, Utah requires the commission number on the stamp (for seals issued on or after July 1, 2008), which not every state does. Both the color and the commission-number requirement are dated thresholds, so an older valid stamp purchased before those dates is not automatically illegal — but any new stamp must comply.

On the exam, when a question asks what makes a Utah seal distinctive, the answer pairs the purple ink with the rectangular shape and the great seal of Utah.