Notary Seal
Not all states require the use of a notary seal, but it is very official looking to use a seal, and hard to imposter the notary's official seal. A seal is really a rubber stamp. Notaries should use an inked seal, and they should affix their seal's impression to the notary certificate corresponding to each notary act they perform. Most seals are just simple devices with a handle that you make an impression with by pressing downwards. However, another popular type of seal is an embosser which clamps a piece of paper between its plates. A non-ink embosser is highly recommended as a secondary form of seal that can be affixed to all pages of a notarized document. It creates a three dimentional impression in the paper that is not possible to photocopy which is a great method to deter fraud, and the switching of pages in multi-page documents. The notary seal should have the name of the state, county, the notary's name, commission number, and expiration date. Additionally, notary seals are generally rectangular or circular and have a border that could have a number of different designs.