Corporate seals, which are forms of notification for businesses worldwide, used to be really important. As time has gone on corporate seals have lost their importance because they simply aren’t needed as they used to be. Today you will see a corporate seal on business envelopes and other official business documents because they are simply used to help brand a corporation. Custom corporate seals are made for each corporation in an attempt to identify certain key aspects of each corporation.
The original purpose of the corporate seal was to legalize documents for the business. Corporate seals were used to emboss information about the corporation onto documents. One of the most common types of corporate seals was a corporate seal stamp. This stamp was used to imprint the legal name of the corporation and the year and state in which the corporation was formed onto the legal documents in an attempt to identify the corporation as it executed its legal business. Now corporation seals are not needed to legalize any business documents, all that is required is the signature of the president and vice-president of the corporation.
Even though the corporate seal is not as important today as it was before it still has legal uses. Most modern corporate laws make the requirement of using a corporate seal unnecessary, but they can still be used to make binding legal contracts. The corporate seal can be used in the execution of deeds, which are quite different from simple business contracts. Corporate seals are often considered a precondition for banks if you plan to open a bank account for the corporation, which makes them quite necessary to have on hand, even if you don’t use it very often. Corporation seals are required in some cases under international corporate law because they are needed to legitimize share certificates, but domestically they are not required for share certificates, although share certificates are often embossed with the corporate seal.
Corporate seals have been used in business purposes since the Middle Ages. During the Middle Ages, corporate seals were used on official documents as a way to convey how important the documents were, but also to identify who was making the documents legitimate. During this time instead of using a corporate stamp, hot wax was poured onto the documents and a ring was used to imprint the seal of the business or corporation that was officiating the documentation. Technology has evolved so corporations no longer have to use hot wax, they can use a rubber stamp or steel embosser.
No matter if the corporation is using a rubber stamp or a steel embosser the information that is contained on the corporate seal is the same. All corporate seals are customized. Each custom corporate seal is going to bear the company’s logo, their name, the copyright date, and patent number. Advances in technology have allowed the corporate seal to differ from rubber stamps or steel embossers. One of the most common types of corporate seals that you will find today is tamper resistant seals, which are important for corporations to use for fraud prevention. Tamper resistant seals are designed to fall apart once they have been tampered with, so if they are used on checks or other important documents people cannot alter those documents without being caught.
Even though corporate seals are not as important as they used to be, they are still a good idea for corporations to have on hand. Having a corporate seal on hand is nice for corporations because you never how or when you might need it for your business.
