When the seal of a court, public officer, department, agency or section of the Government, or notary public, or of any person, is required by law to be affixed to any paper, the word “”seal”” refers to an impression of such seal on the paper alone, either as a physical impression or an impression in ink.

SOURCE: Former Civil Procedure Code § 14, updated.

COMMENT: The former § 14, CCP, referred to a “”seal”” as including what we normally regard as a Seal, a direct impression on paper, in addition to the older impressions in wax or on a wafer. The wax or wafer seal has long ceased to be in common usage, and the latest usage practiced in a number of states, including California, is a rubber stamp impression of the seal on the paper in question. Thus, this new section no longer refers to wax or wafers, but does permit ink impressions from a stamp.