Written by Acorn Sales Company, manufacturing stamps and seals since 1964 · Reviewed by Holly R, VP of Sales and Marketing at Acorn Sales, against the Board for Professional Soil Scientists, Wetland Professionals, and Geologists and 18VAC145-40-60 on 21 September 2026 · Updated 21 September 2026
A Virginia geologist seal is two inches in diameter and carries the last four digits of your certificate number, not the last six. 18VAC145-40-60 states both: “The original seal must be two inches in diameter and conform to the design illustrated in this subdivision,” and “The number on the seal is the last four digits of the certificate number.” The six-digit footnote everyone remembers belongs to 18VAC10-20-760, the architects and engineers board chapter. Suppliers who serve Virginia engineers routinely default to six and will get this wrong.
The credential moved out from under the regulation. Code of Virginia § 54.1-2208.2, as amended by 2025 c. 722, now provides that “No person shall represent himself as a licensed professional geologist unless he has been so licensed by the Board,” with violation a Class 1 misdemeanor, so Virginia has moved from a voluntary certification to a protected licensed title. The regulation, last amended effective 1 November 2025, still speaks throughout of a certified professional geologist and a certificate number. Build the device to the design the regulation publishes and to the number the board actually issued you.
Sealing itself is permissive. 18VAC145-40-60 opens with “A certified professional geologist may apply a rubber stamp or preprinted seal to final and complete cover sheets and to each original sheet of plans or drawings prepared or reviewed and approved by the regulant,” and the obligation attaches once the seal is used: “All seal imprints on final documents must be signed.”
Virginia geologist seal requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Virginia rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Conditional | 18VAC145-40-60 |
| Required elements | Your name, The number, being the last four digits of your certificate number, The seal design illustrated in 18VAC145-40-60 and Your signature on every seal imprint used on a final document | 18VAC145-40-60 |
| Size and shape | Two inches in diameter. 18VAC145-40-60: “The original seal must be two inches in diameter and conform to the design illustrated in this subdivision.” That matches the two-inch figure the Commonwealth uses. | 18VAC145-40-60 |
| Device allowed | 18VAC145-40-60 names two devices directly: “a rubber stamp or preprinted seal.” A preprinted seal is a seal image printed onto the sheet, which makes the rubber stamp the practical buy for one-off reports and the printed design the practical route for a firm producing volume. | 18VAC145-40-60 |
| Signature and date | The signature is mandatory wherever the seal is used: “All seal imprints on final documents must be signed.” A date is not addressed. | 18VAC145-40-60 (date requirement not addressed) |
| What must be sealed | The rule reaches “final and complete cover sheets” and “each original sheet of plans or drawings prepared or reviewed and approved by the regulant.” Two things follow. | 18VAC145-40-60 |
| Electronic seal | Not addressed. 18VAC145-40-60 authorizes a rubber stamp or a preprinted seal and says nothing about electronic or digital sealing, and no criteria comparable to 18VAC10-20-760 C appear anywhere in 18VAC145-40. | 18VAC145-40 (no electronic seal provision) |
| Renewal and lapse | Expiration, renewal and reinstatement are governed by 18VAC145-40-30 and 18VAC145-40-40, with 18VAC145-40-50 addressing status during the period before reinstatement. | 18VAC145-40-30, 18VAC145-40-40 and 18VAC145-40-50 |
| Firm requirements | Not applicable. 18VAC145-40 contains no business entity registration and no certificate of authorization for geology firms, and the board issues none. | 18VAC145-40 (no firm registration provision) |
| Regulator | The Board for Professional Soil Scientists, Wetland Professionals, and Geologists | 18VAC145-40 (Board for Professional Soil Scientists, Wetland Professionals, and Geologists, regulations governing geologists), principally 18VAC145-40-60 use of seal, amended effective November 1, 2025, with 18VAC145-40-10, 18VAC145-40-30, 18VAC145-40-40 and 18VAC145-40-50, from the Virginia Administrative Code, and Code of Virginia §§ 54.1-2200, 54.1-2208.1 through 54.1-2208.5. Virginia geologists are outside 18VAC10-20 and outside the architects and engineers board entirely. |
Is a seal required in Virginia?
Geologists in Virginia answer to a different board and a different chapter from the state’s architects, engineers and surveyors, and the seal rule is permissive rather than mandatory. 18VAC145-40-60 begins: “A certified professional geologist may apply a rubber stamp or preprinted seal to final and complete cover sheets and to each original sheet of plans or drawings prepared or reviewed and approved by the regulant.” The obligation attaches once the seal is used: “All seal imprints on final documents must be signed,” and “Application of the seal and signature indicates acceptance of responsibility for work shown thereon.” The underlying credential changed recently. Code of Virginia § 54.1-2208.2, as amended by 2025 c. 722, now provides that “No person shall represent himself as a licensed professional geologist unless he has been so licensed by the Board,” with violation a Class 1 misdemeanor, so Virginia has moved from a purely voluntary certification to a protected licensed title.
What must appear on the seal
- Your name
- The number, being the last four digits of your certificate number
- The seal design illustrated in 18VAC145-40-60
- Your signature on every seal imprint used on a final document
The number on the Virginia geologist seal is not the number on the architect and engineer seals. 18VAC145-40-60 states that “The number on the seal is the last four digits of the certificate number,” where the board’s other seal chapter at 18VAC10-20-760 uses the last six digits. Four digits, not six. The design itself is published as an illustration inside 18VAC145-40-60 rather than described in words, so the arc wording has to be copied from that published design. Note also that the regulation still speaks throughout of a certified professional geologist and a certificate number, while the Code now speaks of a licensed professional geologist; until the chapter is conformed, build the device to the design the regulation actually publishes and to the number the board actually issued you.
Size and shape
Two inches in diameter. 18VAC145-40-60: “The original seal must be two inches in diameter and conform to the design illustrated in this subdivision.” That matches the two-inch figure the Commonwealth uses for architects, engineers, surveyors, landscape architects and certified interior designers, so Virginia is consistent on diameter across two separate boards and two separate chapters.
Embosser, rubber stamp or digital
18VAC145-40-60 names two devices directly: “a rubber stamp or preprinted seal.” A preprinted seal is a seal image printed onto the sheet, which makes the rubber stamp the practical buy for one-off reports and the printed design the practical route for a firm producing volume. No embosser is named, and nothing in the chapter authorizes a digital or cryptographic seal.
Signing and dating
The signature is mandatory wherever the seal is used: “All seal imprints on final documents must be signed.” A date is not addressed. Unlike 18VAC10-20-760, which welds seal, signature and date into one set, 18VAC145-40-60 requires only the signature. Checked the full text of 18VAC145-40-60 and the section list for 18VAC145-40, where no other section imposes a dating duty. Dating your imprints remains sensible practice, but Virginia does not compel it for geologists.
Four digits, not six, and Virginia changed the credential out from under the rule
Anyone who has bought a Virginia seal before will reach for the familiar footnote about the last six digits of the license number. That footnote belongs to 18VAC10-20-760, the architects and engineers board chapter. Geologists are regulated by a different board under 18VAC145-40, and its seal section says something else: “The number on the seal is the last four digits of the certificate number.” Two inches in both chapters, four digits in one and six in the other.
The second thing to know is that the underlying credential moved. Virginia geology was a voluntary certification for decades. Code of Virginia § 54.1-2208.2, as amended by 2025 c. 722, now protects the licensed professional geologist title outright, and misuse of it is a Class 1 misdemeanor. The regulation in 18VAC145-40, last amended effective November 1, 2025, still speaks in the language of certification and certificate numbers. Build your device to the design and the number the board actually published and issued, and expect the vocabulary in the chapter to catch up rather than assuming the rule has been superseded.
Third, this chapter is thinner than the one governing architects and engineers. It requires a signature on every seal imprint on a final document, but it does not require a date, and it authorizes only a rubber stamp or a preprinted seal, with no electronic sealing criteria anywhere in the chapter.
Which documents must be sealed
The rule reaches “final and complete cover sheets” and “each original sheet of plans or drawings prepared or reviewed and approved by the regulant.” Two things follow. First, the sealing reach extends to sheets you reviewed and approved, not only to sheets you drew. Second, sealing is written as permissive, so the practical driver is usually a client or an agency requiring a sealed geology product rather than the board. There is no preliminary-document carve-out in the section, because the section does not compel sealing in the first place.
Electronic and digital seals
Not addressed. 18VAC145-40-60 authorizes a rubber stamp or a preprinted seal and says nothing about electronic or digital sealing, and no criteria comparable to 18VAC10-20-760 C appear anywhere in 18VAC145-40. Checked the full section list for that chapter, which runs definitions, fees, expiration and renewal, reinstatement, status prior to reinstatement, use of seal, entry qualifications and standards of practice. Virginia’s electronic-seal criteria for architects and engineers are in a different chapter under a different board and do not reach geologists.
Renewal, lapse and retirement
Expiration, renewal and reinstatement are governed by 18VAC145-40-30 and 18VAC145-40-40, with 18VAC145-40-50 addressing status during the period before reinstatement. The number on the seal is the last four digits of the certificate number, so it survives an ordinary renewal untouched. The chapter contains no duty to surrender or destroy the device. What did change is the statutory backdrop: since 2025 c. 722, representing yourself as a licensed professional geologist without board licensure is a Class 1 misdemeanor under § 54.1-2208.2, so continuing to use a seal after the credential has gone is a criminal exposure rather than only a disciplinary one.
Firm requirements
Not applicable. 18VAC145-40 contains no business entity registration and no certificate of authorization for geology firms, and the board issues none. Contrast the architects and engineers board, whose 18VAC10-20-627 does require business entity registration. A Virginia geology firm holds no seal and carries no board number on its reports; responsibility attaches to the individual through the acceptance-of-responsibility sentence in 18VAC145-40-60.
What to check before you order
Ask for a two-inch die and make sure the number reads the last four digits of your certificate number, not the last six. Suppliers who serve Virginia engineers routinely default to six and will get this wrong. Send them the seal design illustrated in 18VAC145-40-60, since the lettering exists there as a picture rather than as words. A rubber stamp is what the rule names first and is the right buy for signed report copies; a preprinted seal is the alternative if your firm prints sealed sheets in volume. Leave room to sign every imprint, because the rule makes the signature mandatory wherever the seal is applied. Virginia sets no electronic geologist seal standard, so do not pay for a digital certificate on the strength of this chapter.
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Frequently asked questions
Is a geologist seal required in Virginia?
The rule is permissive rather than mandatory. 18VAC145-40-60 says a geologist may apply a rubber stamp or preprinted seal, and the practical driver is usually a client or an agency requiring a sealed geology product. What is mandatory once you use it is the signature: all seal imprints on final documents must be signed, and “Application of the seal and signature indicates acceptance of responsibility for work shown thereon.”
What size is a Virginia geologist seal?
Two inches in diameter. That matches the figure the Commonwealth uses for architects, engineers, surveyors, landscape architects and certified interior designers, so Virginia is consistent on diameter across two separate boards and two separate chapters. It is the number of digits that differs, not the size.
Four digits or six?
Four. 18VAC145-40-60 uses the last four digits of the certificate number, where 18VAC10-20-760 uses the last six for the architects and engineers board. Check the proof before approving it, because this is the single most common error on a Virginia geologist die.
What does the seal say?
Your name and the number, laid out to the seal design illustrated in 18VAC145-40-60. The design is published as an illustration rather than described in words, so the arc wording has to be copied from that published design rather than reconstructed.
Does the regulation say certified or licensed?
The regulation still says certified professional geologist and certificate number, while the Code now protects the licensed professional geologist title. Until the chapter is conformed, build to the design the regulation publishes and to the number the board issued you, and do not treat the rule as superseded because the statutory vocabulary changed.
Rubber stamp or preprinted seal?
Those are the two the rule names. A preprinted seal is a seal image printed onto the sheet, which makes the rubber stamp the practical buy for one-off reports and the printed design the practical route for a firm producing volume. No embosser is named.
Do I have to date the imprint?
Virginia does not require it here. 18VAC145-40-60 requires only the signature on every seal imprint on a final document, unlike 18VAC10-20-760, which welds seal, signature and date into one set. Dating your imprints remains sensible practice, but the rule does not compel it for geologists.
Which sheets can I seal?
Final and complete cover sheets, and each original sheet of plans or drawings prepared or reviewed and approved by you. Note that the reach extends to sheets you reviewed and approved rather than only sheets you drew. There is no preliminary-document carve-out, because the section does not compel sealing in the first place.
Can I seal electronically in Virginia?
18VAC145-40-60 authorizes a rubber stamp or a preprinted seal and says nothing about electronic or digital sealing, and no criteria comparable to 18VAC10-20-760 C appear anywhere in 18VAC145-40, whose sections run definitions, fees, expiration and renewal, reinstatement, status prior to reinstatement, use of seal, entry qualifications and standards of practice. Virginia’s electronic-seal criteria for architects and engineers sit under a different board and do not reach geologists, so do not pay for a digital certificate on the strength of this chapter.
What happens to my seal if the credential lapses?
The number on the seal is the last four digits of the certificate number, so it survives an ordinary renewal untouched, and the chapter contains no duty to surrender or destroy the device. What changed is the statutory backdrop: since 2025 c. 722, representing yourself as a licensed professional geologist without board licensure is a Class 1 misdemeanor under § 54.1-2208.2, so using the seal after the credential has gone is a criminal exposure rather than only a disciplinary one. Expiration, renewal and reinstatement are at 18VAC145-40-30, -40 and -50.
Does a Virginia geology firm need to register?
No. 18VAC145-40 contains no business entity registration and no certificate of authorization for geology firms, and the board issues none, unlike the architects and engineers board whose 18VAC10-20-627 does require it. A Virginia geology firm holds no seal and carries no board number on its reports, because responsibility attaches to the individual through the acceptance-of-responsibility sentence in 18VAC145-40-60.
