Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against Texas Department of Agriculture on 22 September 2026 · Updated 22 September 2026
We could not establish what a Texas public weigher seal is, or whether a weigher obtains a seal device at all, and we are not going to guess. The Texas Department of Agriculture states on its own public weigher page that the weigher “must record the official weight on a certificate that includes the date the weight was taken, signature and license number of the public weigher and the TDA seal”. That phrase, the TDA seal, can be read two ways, and the difference between them decides whether there is anything for you to buy.
Every official Texas source that would settle it was closed to us. The statute, Tex. Agric. Code chapter 13, subchapter E, returned the site homepage or refused automated retrieval on every route we tried. The Texas Administrative Code, where 4 TAC chapter 12, subchapter H sits, returned a site has moved notice, an empty replacement portal or HTTP 403. So this page tells you exactly what we read, exactly what we could not read, and what to ask TDA before you spend money. Note also that Texas does not use the word weighmaster. The credential is a public weigher.
Texas public weighmaster seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Texas rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Unresolved. TDA’s own guidance says the certificate must include “the TDA seal”, which is mandatory in form, but the statutory or rule verb was never read. Whether a weigher obtains a seal device at all, and from whom, is not established. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher; access note in sources |
| Required elements | Unresolved. No element list for any seal was found in any Texas source we could reach. The certificate elements TDA publishes are the date the weight was taken, the signature and license number of the public weigher, and the TDA seal. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher |
| Size and shape | Not addressed in any source we reached. TDA publishes no size or shape, and none should be inferred from another state or from a product. We did not read the statute or the rule, so we cannot say whether either specifies one. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher; access note in sources |
| Device allowed | Not addressed in any source we reached. No embosser, ink stamp or electronic option is named, permitted or excluded in anything we could open. | Access note in sources |
| Signature and date | Per TDA, the certificate must include the date the weight was taken and the signature and license number of the public weigher. This is the one part of the Texas certificate that a readable source states plainly. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher |
| What must be sealed | The official certificate on which the weigher records the official weight, per TDA’s description. How the seal reaches that certificate, whether applied by the weigher or pre-printed on a prescribed form, is the open question. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher |
| Electronic seal | Not addressed in any source we reached. No electronic or digital seal provision appears in anything we could open, and the statute and rule were not readable. | Access note in sources |
| Renewal and lapse | TDA states that public weigher licenses are valid for two years, are nonrenewable, and a new application will be required. Form RWM-702 gives the fee as $500. A $10,000 bond on form RWM-704 for a duration of two years, a Power of Attorney and scale registration are also required. What happens to any seal on lapse is not addressed in any source we reached. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher; TDA Form RWM-702 |
| Firm requirements | Not addressed in any source we reached. What TDA does state is that the applicant must have the weighing scale or scales registered with TDA. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher |
| Regulator | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures. TDA issues the public weigher license and certificate of authority and holds the bond. | Texas Department of Agriculture, Regulatory Programs, Weights and Measures, Public Weigher |
Texas licenses a public weigher, not a weighmaster
Start with the vocabulary, because it sends people to the wrong law. Most states in this trade license a weighmaster or a licensed public weighmaster. Texas does not use either phrase. The credential is a public weigher, and the statute is Tex. Agric. Code chapter 13, subchapter E, captioned Public Weigher.
TDA describes the role this way: “A Public Weigher performs independent third-party weighing services on commodities requested to be weighed and certifies the weight to be accurate.” The gatekeeping sentence is separate: “A Public Weigher may not issue an official certificate declaring the accurate weight of a commodity requested to be weighed unless they have obtained a license from TDA.” The application instructions put the same rule in the statute’s own vocabulary: a public weigher may not weigh a commodity unless the weigher has obtained a certificate of authority from the department.
If you searched for Texas weighmaster rules and found nothing, that is why. It also means advice written for weighmasters in neighboring states does not transfer here, and nor does the seal practice that goes with it.
The seal question, and why we are not answering it
Here is the whole of what a readable Texas source says about a seal. TDA’s public weigher page states that public weighers “must record the official weight on a certificate that includes the date the weight was taken, signature and license number of the public weigher and the TDA seal.” One phrase, four words, in a list of certificate contents.
That is not enough to order artwork from, and it is not enough to tell you whether you need to order anything at all. We are treating Texas as unresolved rather than filling the gap with an inference from Arizona or Oklahoma or from what most states do. A seal page that guesses is worse than no page, because a guess costs the reader either a device he did not need or a rejected certificate.
The two readings of “the TDA seal”
Reading one: TDA issues a seal device to the licensed weigher, who applies it to each certificate. That is how Arizona, North Carolina and Washington all work, with the agency making the seal, assigning it and in several cases taking it back. On this reading the TDA seal is a stamp or embosser in your hand, obtained from the Department, and there is nothing for a commercial supplier to make.
Reading two: the seal is the Department’s own agency seal, already printed on a certificate form TDA prescribes. On this reading you never handle a seal at all. You buy or receive the prescribed certificate stock, and the seal is part of the document rather than something you apply.
Both readings fit the sentence TDA published. The phrase does not say issued to the weigher, and it does not say pre-printed. It appears in a list of what the certificate includes, which is exactly the kind of sentence that works either way. We are not going to pick one for you.
There is a way to tell them apart once you are in the process, and it costs nothing. Ask TDA for the certificate form the Department expects you to use. If the seal is already on that form, reading two is correct and you are finished. If the form has a blank space where a seal belongs, ask who supplies what fills it. That one question separates the two readings faster than any amount of reasoning from the wording, and it comes from the Department rather than from us.
What the application forms do and do not say
We read both of TDA’s published public weigher forms, and the absence there is worth reporting. Neither TDA form RWM-702, the Public Weigher Certificate of Authority Application, nor its instruction sheet mentions a seal or a stamp anywhere. Not in the fee section, not in the checklist of what to submit, not in the instructions.
That cuts slightly against reading one. In states that issue a seal to the licensee, the application usually says so, because the seal fee rides along with it: Washington’s statute expressly provides that the sixty dollar seal fee accompanies the license application, and NCDA&CS describes the annual purchase as a license and seal together. The Texas application has no such line. But an absence on a form is weak evidence about what a statute requires, and it is nowhere near strong enough to publish as a finding. We also note that TDA’s Weights and Measures Enforcement Guidelines do not cover public weighers at all, so that document adds nothing either way.
Exactly what we could not read
We think it matters that a reader can see the shape of the gap, so here it is.
The statute. Tex. Agric. Code chapter 13, subchapter E contains the sections that would settle this: 13.255 on the certificate, 13.257 on recording of weights and measures, 13.258 on duties of the department, and 13.261 on rules. We located the section list but obtained no verbatim text from a Texas publisher. The Texas Legislature statute site returned its own homepage instead of chapter 13 on three different paths, and refused automated retrieval on three more, including the PDF and the document viewer. The alternate legislative host refused as well.
The rule. 4 Tex. Admin. Code part 1, chapter 12, subchapter H covers public weighers at sections 12.70 to 12.74. We confirmed that the subchapter exists and nothing more. The Secretary of State’s Texas Administrative Code viewer returned a site has moved notice, the replacement portal rendered with no content, and the older TAC pages and the Texas Register archives returned HTTP 403.
So the two documents that would tell you whether a Texas public weigher holds a seal, what it says and where it comes from are the two documents we could not open. That is the honest position.
What the certificate does have to show
One part of the Texas picture is clear enough to act on. Per TDA, the certificate records the official weight and includes the date the weight was taken, the signature of the public weigher, and the weigher’s license number. Those three are ordinary, they match what every other state in this trade asks for, and no seal question hangs over them.
If you are designing certificate stock or a ticket layout, build it around those three plus the weight itself, and leave the seal question open until TDA answers it. Leaving space is cheaper than reprinting.
The signature and license number pairing is worth a note of its own, because it is the one Texas requirement that matches the rest of this trade exactly. Every state we have read for public weighing, whether it uses a seal or not, wants the certificate traceable to the individual who performed the weighing and to that individual’s license number. Texas is no exception on that point. Whatever the seal turns out to be, it will sit alongside your signature and number rather than replace them.
Licensing: two years, nonrenewable, bonded
TDA states that public weigher licenses are valid for a period of two years, are nonrenewable, and that a new application will be required. Nonrenewable is unusual phrasing and it is TDA’s own: plan on starting the application process again rather than on a renewal notice arriving.
The money and the paperwork are set out on the forms. Form RWM-702 gives the fee as $500. TDA also requires a bond on form RWM-704 in the amount of $10,000 for a duration of two years, a Power of Attorney, and registration of the applicant’s scale or scales with TDA. Those are substantial entry costs by the standards of this credential, which is a reason to get the seal question answered early rather than at the end.
On records, TDA states that the public weigher must retain copies of each certificate for a period of two years, and must retain in a well bound book, for a period of two years, a copy of each official certificate issued.
Penalties, from headings we could see
We can name the enforcement sections without quoting them, since we located the section list but not the text. Tex. Agric. Code 13.259 is captioned Penalty for Issuing a False Certificate, and 13.260 is captioned Penalty for Issuing Certificate Without Authority. Section 13.2555 covers Revocation, Modification, or Suspension of Certificate. TDA states that failure to comply with these regulations may result in license revocation.
We are reporting those as captions rather than as rules, because a caption is all we could read. If the detail matters to you, they are the citations to ask TDA for.
The historic county public weigher, and why we are cautious
Older Texas material describes a public weigher as an office elected or appointed in a county precinct. The current subchapter E section list contains no election or appointment sections; numbers 13.252 through 13.254 are absent from it, and TDA today describes a two year, bonded, TDA licensed credential. That suggests the elected office is gone.
We say suggests, because that reading rests on a section list rather than on operative text, and a section list is not a repeal. If you have come across a reference to a county public weigher and are trying to work out whether it still applies, treat this as another question for TDA rather than as settled.
What to ask TDA before you order anything
Four questions, in this order, and none of them takes long to answer for somebody who has the file open.
- Does a licensed public weigher receive or obtain a seal device, or is the TDA seal pre-printed on a certificate form the Department prescribes?
- If a device is involved, who supplies it, what does it cost, and does it remain Department property and have to be returned when the license ends?
- If a weigher is expected to have one made, what exactly must it say, and is any size or shape specified in 4 TAC 12.70 to 12.74?
- Is the certificate itself on a form TDA prescribes, and can you send the current one?
Ask before you order, not after. Given a $500 license fee and a $10,000 bond, the cost of one email is not the constraint here.
Do not let another state fill the gap
The temptation with an unresolved state is to reason from the neighbors. It is a bad idea in this particular trade, because weighmaster and weigher seal practice varies more than almost any other credential we research. Within this batch alone: Virginia requires an embossed impression seal the licensee buys himself, with wording fixed by statute. North Carolina requires a seal that the Department sells with the annual license, carrying the license expiration date, and that remains State property. Washington issues a seal from the director for sixty dollars, assigns it to a single scale, and takes it back within ten days of a license ending, while also allowing certification with no seal device at all. New York and Pennsylvania prescribe no seal at all.
Five states, five different answers. Whatever Texas turns out to be, it will not be right because it resembles one of them.
If TDA confirms that you are expected to have a seal made, and tells you what it must say, we can cut it; send us the wording TDA gives you and nothing else, and you can contact us to start that. If TDA tells you the seal is theirs and already on the form, then there is nothing to order and you have saved yourself the money. Either answer is a good outcome. Guessing is not. 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
Does Texas require a public weigher to have a seal?
We could not establish it. TDA’s own guidance says the certificate must include the date, signature, license number and “the TDA seal”, but that phrase does not say whether the seal is a device issued to the weigher or the Department’s own seal pre-printed on a prescribed form. The statute and the rule were both unreadable to us. Ask TDA before ordering anything.
Why could you not read the Texas statute or rule?
The Texas Legislature statute site returned its own homepage instead of Agriculture Code chapter 13 on several paths and refused automated retrieval on the rest, including the PDF and the document viewer. The Secretary of State’s Texas Administrative Code viewer returned a site has moved notice, the replacement portal rendered empty, and the older pages and Texas Register archives returned HTTP 403.
Is a Texas public weigher the same thing as a weighmaster?
It is the same kind of work under a different name. Texas does not use weighmaster; the credential is a public weigher, licensed and bonded through the Texas Department of Agriculture under Agriculture Code chapter 13, subchapter E. Material written about weighmasters in other states does not carry over.
What does the Texas certificate have to include?
Per TDA: the date the weight was taken, the signature and license number of the public weigher, and the TDA seal. The first three are clear. The fourth is the open question on this page.
Does the application form mention a seal?
No. Neither TDA form RWM-702 nor its instruction sheet mentions a seal or stamp anywhere. That is weak evidence rather than an answer, since states that issue a seal to the licensee usually mention the seal fee on the application, but an absence on a form does not establish what a statute requires.
How long is a Texas public weigher license good for?
Two years, and TDA states that licenses are nonrenewable and a new application will be required. Form RWM-702 gives the fee as $500, and TDA also requires a $10,000 bond for two years on form RWM-704, a Power of Attorney, and registration of your scales.
Should I order a seal in the meantime?
No. If the TDA seal turns out to be the Department’s own seal on a prescribed form, a device you bought is useless. If it turns out to be issued by TDA, a device you bought is not the official one. Confirm with TDA first, then order only what they tell you to.
