Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Standards Division on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
North Carolina requires a public weighmaster seal, and you do not buy it from a stamp company. The State issues it, and the State keeps it. NCDA&CS sells the seal together with the annual license for a $25 fee and mails the physical stamp to you, and G.S. 81A-54(c) provides that “All seals remain the property of the State and shall be returned to the Commissioner upon termination of duties as a public weighmaster.” There is nothing here for a commercial supplier to sell you as the official seal, which is why this page tells you how to get yours rather than trying to sell you one.
The requirement itself is real and it is strict. G.S. 81A-54(a) makes it the duty of every public weighmaster to obtain an official seal carrying four specific items, one of which is the expiration date of the license, so the die changes every license year. G.S. 81A-54(b) says the seal shall be stamped or impressed on every certificate. Since the 2026 amendment the same subsection expressly allows an electronic stamp, on conditions about how your signature is captured. All of that is set out below.
North Carolina public weighmaster seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | North Carolina rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Yes. “It shall be the duty of every public weighmaster to obtain an official seal”, and “The seal shall be stamped or impressed on every certificate issued pursuant to this Article.” Shall, not may. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(a), (b) |
| Required elements | Four items, listed in the statute: “North Carolina Public Weighmaster”; the weighmaster’s name; the assigned weighmaster license number; and the expiration date of the weighmaster license. No abbreviation of the credential line is offered. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(a) |
| Size and shape | Not addressed. No size, diameter or shape appears in 81A-54 or anywhere else in Article 5, and NCDA&CS publishes none. We also could not read 02 NCAC ch. 38, so we do not assert that a rule level size is absent, only that none is published. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(a); access note in sources |
| Device allowed | Either impression or ink: the seal “shall be stamped or impressed”. An electronic stamp is expressly permitted. NCDA&CS adds that computer generated stamps that appear exactly like the current stamp and require a signature are acceptable. No device is excluded. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(b); NCDA&CS Standards Division, Public Weighmaster (FAQ) |
| Signature and date | Each certificate shows the date on which the product is weighed, counted, read or recorded. When an electronic stamp is used the weighmaster’s signature shall be captured by sign in protected software or by an electronic signature pad capturing the signature live. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-53; N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(b) |
| What must be sealed | Every certificate issued pursuant to Article 5. One narrow exception: “The weighers of tobacco in leaf tobacco warehouses may use, instead of the seal, their signatures in ink or other indelible substance posted in a conspicuous and accessible place in the warehouse.” | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(b), (c) |
| Electronic seal | Expressly allowed, and no third party digital certificate is required. The only conditions are the two signature capture methods. NCDA&CS treats a stored electronic signature that anyone could reach as unacceptable, and still mails the physical stamp as a backup. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(b); NCDA&CS Standards Division, Public Weighmaster (FAQ) |
| Renewal and lapse | Licenses run one year, at a fee of twenty-five dollars per person licensed, and NCDA&CS states they expire June 30. Because the expiration date is engraved on the die, the seal is inherently annual. On termination of duties all seals go back: they remain State property and shall be returned to the Commissioner. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-52; N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-54(c); NCDA&CS Standards Division, Public Weighmaster License |
| Firm requirements | None. The license and seal are personal, with a fee paid “for each person licensed”. A person operating as a public weighmaster outside the State files with the application a copy of the most recent weighing device inspection report from the previous 12 months. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-52 |
| Regulator | North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Standards Division. The North Carolina Board of Agriculture adopts rules; the Commissioner of Agriculture or his designated agent licenses, issues seals and takes them back. | N.C. Gen. Stat. 81A-51 |
Who supplies a North Carolina public weighmaster seal?
The Department does. NCDA&CS states that applicants annually purchase a license and seal for a $25 fee from the department, and its own weighmaster guidance says of the electronic option that “We will still mail you the physical stamp, so you have a back-up.” The stamp arrives from the State, made by the State, as part of the licensing transaction.
That is settled by statute as well as by practice. G.S. 81A-54(c) provides that “All seals remain the property of the State and shall be returned to the Commissioner upon termination of duties as a public weighmaster.” A device that is State property while you hold it and goes back when you stop is not a device a manufacturer can sell you, and no North Carolina weighmaster should be buying one from a catalog. If a supplier offers to make you an official North Carolina public weighmaster seal, that offer is wrong on the law.
The rest of this page is written on that footing. It sets out what the statute requires, so you can check that what the Department sends you is right and use it correctly, and so you know what happens at renewal and at the end.
The seal is still mandatory, and the language is not soft
G.S. 81A-54(a) opens: “It shall be the duty of every public weighmaster to obtain an official seal that contains the following information”. Subsection (b) follows with “The seal shall be stamped or impressed on every certificate issued pursuant to this Article.” Two duties, both in shall, one to have it and one to use it.
Who that reaches is defined broadly. Under G.S. 81A-51(5) a public weighmaster is any person who weighs, measures or counts, or who ascertains from a weighing, measuring or recording device for any other person and declares the weight to be the accurate weight of the product upon which the purchase, sale or exchange is based, and receives compensation for the act. G.S. 81A-52 adds that all public weighmasters shall be licensed. The compensation element is what usually decides borderline cases, not the size of the operation.
What the seal carries: four items, and one of them is a date
The element list in G.S. 81A-54(a) is complete and numbered. The seal contains, first, the words “North Carolina Public Weighmaster”. Second, the weighmaster’s name. Third, the assigned weighmaster license number. Fourth, the expiration date of the weighmaster license.
The credential line is fixed wording, written out in the statute in full and offered in no shorter form. The name and number are yours. The fourth item is the one that makes North Carolina different from almost every other seal in this trade, and it deserves its own section.
The expiration date on the die makes the seal annual
Put G.S. 81A-54(a)(4) next to G.S. 81A-52 and the consequence is unavoidable. The statute says public weighmasters shall be licensed for a period of one year beginning the day the application is processed, at a fee of twenty-five dollars for each person licensed, and NCDA&CS states that licenses expire on June 30 of each year. The seal carries that expiration date. So when the license year turns over, last year’s die is no longer a correct seal, because it reads a date that has passed.
This is why the Department bundles the seal into the annual purchase rather than issuing one die that lasts a career. It is also why the ordering instinct that works in other states, buy a good device once and keep it, does not apply here. Treat the seal as a yearly consumable that arrives with your license, and diary the renewal early enough that the new stamp is in your hand before the old date goes stale.
Every certificate gets it, with one exception for leaf tobacco
Subsection (b) applies the seal to “every certificate issued pursuant to this Article”. G.S. 81A-53 tells you what those certificates are: all public weighmasters shall issue certificates of weight, measure, count, reading or recording on forms approved by the Commissioner. Approved forms, so the certificate stock is not a free design either.
Article 5 carries a single narrow alternative, in G.S. 81A-54(c): “The weighers of tobacco in leaf tobacco warehouses may use, instead of the seal, their signatures in ink or other indelible substance posted in a conspicuous and accessible place in the warehouse.” Read the conditions closely before relying on it. It is limited to weighers of tobacco, in leaf tobacco warehouses, and the substitute is a posted ink signature in a conspicuous and accessible place, not a signature on the certificate in place of the seal. Outside that setting the seal rule is the rule.
Electronic stamps, and the two ways to capture a signature
The 2026 amendment to Article 5, at 2026-11, s. 13(b), put electronic stamping expressly into G.S. 81A-54(b). The permission comes with a condition attached to your signature rather than to the stamp: “When an electronic stamp is used, the weighmaster’s signature shall be captured using either of the following: (1) Software that requires the user to sign in prior to adding the electronic signature to the certificate. (2) An electronic signature pad that captures the signature live and then transfers it to the certificate.”
Notice what is not required. No third party digital certificate, no cryptographic standard, no approved vendor list. What the statute cares about is that the signature on the certificate came from you at the moment of signing, either because the software made you authenticate first or because the pad took it live.
NCDA&CS is blunt about the failure mode. Its guidance says “We have seen computer generated stamps that appeared exactly like the current stamp and requiring a signature, this is acceptable” and “A one-time electronic signature is acceptable”, but that “What is not acceptable is a stored electronic signature that anyone would have access to; this is for the protection of the weighmaster!” The Department treats sharing a stored electronic signature as falling under G.S. 81A-55(b)(5). A signature image sitting in a shared folder where any clerk can drop it onto a certificate is the thing this rule exists to stop.
What the certificate itself has to show
G.S. 81A-53 governs the document the seal goes on. Certificates are issued on forms approved by the Commissioner and show the date on which the product is weighed, counted, read or recorded. The section also gives the certificate its evidentiary standing and deals with reweighing and who pays for it.
The working sequence in North Carolina is therefore: approved form, the weighing you personally performed, the date, your signature, and the seal stamped or impressed on the face. If you are running the electronic route, the same sequence holds with the stamp and the signature both applied through software that meets one of the two capture tests.
Two further matters sit in 81A-53 and are worth knowing about before a dispute rather than during one. The section gives a certificate its standing as evidence of the weight it records, and it deals with reweighing and with who bears the cost of a reweigh. If a customer challenges a load, those are the provisions that govern what happens next, and the certificate you issued, on the approved form, sealed and dated, is the document the argument runs on. That is the practical reason the sealing duty is written as every certificate rather than as certificates over a certain value.
No published size, and the rule chapter we could not read
Neither G.S. 81A-54 nor anything else in Article 5 states a diameter, a minimum, a maximum or a shape, and NCDA&CS publishes none. Since the Department makes the seal, that is what you would expect: the size is whatever the State’s own die is.
We should be straight about one limit on our reading. 02 NCAC ch. 38, the Board of Agriculture’s consumer standards rule chapter, is where any rule level detail would live, and we could not read it. The OAH rule browser refused automated retrieval through our connection. So the honest statement is that no size is published in the statute or by the Department, rather than that no size exists anywhere in North Carolina law. Nothing about the seal mandate or the element list turns on that chapter, because both are statutory and complete on their face.
Getting the license and the seal, and what it costs
One transaction covers both. G.S. 81A-52 sets the license at one year from the day the application is processed, with a fee of twenty-five dollars for each person licensed, paid at the time of filing. NCDA&CS describes the same payment as annually purchasing a license and seal for the $25 fee from the department, and states that licenses expire on June 30 of each year.
There is an extra filing for out of State operators. G.S. 81A-52 provides that a person operating as a public weighmaster outside of this State shall include with the application a copy of the most recent weighing device inspection report performed by the person’s local or state weights and measures officials within the 12 month period immediately preceding the date of application.
The license is personal, priced per person. If three people at a yard declare weights for compensation, that is three licenses and three seals, each carrying its own name, number and expiration date.
Check the stamp the day it arrives, against the four statutory elements and against your license. The credential line should read North Carolina Public Weighmaster. The name should match the name on the license. The number should be the assigned license number, digit for digit. And the expiration date should be the date of the license you just bought rather than the one before it. Those are the four things G.S. 81A-54(a) puts on the die, so those are the four things to read before the stamp goes into service. If anything is wrong, it is the Department that corrects it.
Returning the seal, and what counts as misuse
G.S. 81A-54(c) is short and it is the sentence to remember at the end of a job: all seals remain the property of the State and shall be returned to the Commissioner upon termination of duties as a public weighmaster. Not discarded, not kept as a souvenir, not passed to whoever takes over the scale. Returned.
Misuse is dealt with separately and it reaches other people as well as you. Under G.S. 81A-55(a) a public weighmaster who refuses to issue a certificate as prescribed, or who issues a certificate giving a false weight, or who misrepresents the weight to any person, or who otherwise violates the Article or its rules, may have his license revoked, suspended or terminated by the Commissioner. Under G.S. 81A-55(b) it is also a violation for another person to request an inaccurate weighing or certificate, to impersonate a public weighmaster, to erase, change or alter a certificate, or to increase or decrease the weight of a product for the purpose of deception.
What Acorn can and cannot supply for a North Carolina weighmaster
Not the seal. It comes with your license from NCDA&CS, it stays State property, and it goes back when your duties end. If your stamp has not arrived, or it reads wrongly, that is a conversation with the Standards Division rather than with a manufacturer.
We do make stamps for the weighing trade generally, the ordinary yard and office marks that have nothing to do with the official seal, and we make official weighmaster seals for states that leave the device to the licensee, Virginia among them. If that is your situation you can contact us. If you are a North Carolina public weighmaster looking for your official seal, the Department has it. This page is a research summary and not legal advice.
- Public Weighmaster Stamps and Seals
- Virginia Weighmaster Seal: Embosser, at Your Expense
- Washington Weighmaster Seal: State Owned, and Optional
Frequently asked questions
Where do I buy a North Carolina public weighmaster seal?
You do not buy it from a stamp company. NCDA&CS sells the license and seal together for the $25 annual fee and mails you the physical stamp. G.S. 81A-54(c) provides that all seals remain the property of the State and shall be returned to the Commissioner when your duties as a public weighmaster end.
What does the seal have to say?
Four items under G.S. 81A-54(a): the words “North Carolina Public Weighmaster”, the weighmaster’s name, the assigned weighmaster license number, and the expiration date of the weighmaster license.
Why does my seal have an expiration date on it?
Because the statute puts one there. G.S. 81A-54(a)(4) makes the license expiration date an element of the seal, and licenses run one year, expiring June 30 per NCDA&CS. That makes the die annual: when the license year turns, the old stamp reads a date that has passed.
Can I use an electronic stamp instead of the physical one?
Yes. G.S. 81A-54(b) expressly allows an electronic stamp, provided your signature is captured either by software that requires you to sign in before the signature is added, or by an electronic signature pad that captures it live. NCDA&CS still mails the physical stamp as a backup.
Is a stored signature image acceptable on an electronic certificate?
No. NCDA&CS states that a stored electronic signature anyone would have access to is not acceptable, and treats it under G.S. 81A-55(b)(5). The two capture methods in the statute exist so that the signature comes from you at the moment of signing.
How big does the seal have to be?
No size is published. The statute states none and NCDA&CS states none, which follows from the Department making the seal itself. We could not read 02 NCAC ch. 38, so we say no size is published rather than that none exists anywhere in North Carolina law.
Is there any situation where a North Carolina weighmaster does not use the seal?
One. G.S. 81A-54(c) lets weighers of tobacco in leaf tobacco warehouses use, instead of the seal, their signatures in ink or other indelible substance posted in a conspicuous and accessible place in the warehouse. Outside that setting the seal goes on every certificate.
What happens to the seal if I stop working as a weighmaster?
It goes back to the Commissioner. The statute makes every seal State property and requires its return upon termination of duties as a public weighmaster, so the end of a job or a license is the moment to send it in rather than to file it away.
