Why do old official documents bear a postage stamp?

[HenningWalker]

I have recently noticed that old marriage, birth and death certificates tend to have a postage stamp stuck on them and usually a signature across the stamp. I have noticed this on documents from the UK and Germany and I assume that is is some means of proving that a document is authentic. However, I am curious to know how putting a stamp on it is meant to do this as it would have surely been possible to create a counterfeit document and place another postage stamp on it even before photocopying was possible wouldn't it?

Can anyone shed any more light on this?

Thanks,

Henning

[Kay99]

This link may help http://familyfolklore.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/stamp-duty-and-authenticity-of-legal-documents/

I think it is an indication that a tax - stamp duty -had been paid on the documents.

Kay

[Hackstaple]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_stamps_of_the_United_Kingdom

It may well be that these were revenue stamps. Those indicated a tax paid.

However if you examine postage stamps of Great Britain from Queen Victoria onwards most of them appeared with the legend Postage & Revenue.

So the stamp on the reverse is not an authentication but a receipt.

[carol8353]

When I first started work in a bank in the 1960's all cheque books had an imprinted stamp on them.
It was a stamp duty (TAX!) payable to the government. You had to pay for your cheque book back then too,I think it was 2s 6d? ie 1d per cheque.

My grandad's 1893 birth cert has a stamp on it. I don't like getting it out incase the stamp falls off

Carol

ADDED- I've since found out that cheque books used to cost 5s  . The stamp duty payable on each cheque was 2d.

[stanmapstone]

This subject has been on RootsChat before for example see http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=590070.msg4409643#msg4409643
and http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=592819.0


Stan

[mazi]

a little bit more, you always had to sign  over the stamp so that  it was cancelled and could not be steamed off and reused.

[HenningWalker]

Hi,

Thanks for all the feedback on this topic, I'm glad to have finally clarified that! Interesting to hear about the cheque-books as well as I never knew that.

Thanks,

Henning

[km1971]

As an aside the ace of spades in old packs had 'duty paid' to show tax had been paid.

Ken