STAMP (from AS. stempan. OHG. stain fan, Ger. stampfen. to stamp: connected with Gk. aria#eiv, steinbein, to stamp, arelpetv, stcibein, to tread, Skt. stambh, to make firm or steady). A piece of paper upon which a mark or device has been printed or impressed by authority of law, and which is adapted for the purpose of at taching it to some object chargeable with a duty or tax of sonic nature. The stamp is usually gummed on the back and attached to the instru ment or article by adhesion. Such stamps are usually made to represent different values to suit the requirements of the tax law or revenue act under which they are imposed.
The British Government has long employed stamps for the above purposes, and the United States Government for the purpose of raising revenue during the Civil War imposed a stamp tax upon legal instruments and a. great variety of other articles of property. The method is to re quire a stamp to he affixed to an article before it can be sold, which duty is usually performed by the manufacturer of the article. During the
Spanish-American War the United States Gov ernment passed a war revenue act requiring stamps on legal instruments and certain articles of commerce. This law was repealed when the necessity for the increased revenue had ceased. However, internal revenue stamps are still re quired on tobacco, snuff, liquors, cigars. etc., un der excise laws, and this is considered to be the most satisfactory method of collecting revenue upon such articles. Where a stamp tax is im posed on legal instruments the revenue act usual ly provides that an instrument shall be void un less it has the proper stamp. the courts are liberal in their construction of such pro visions, and will usually hold an instrument good if the parties inadvertently have omitted to affix the stamp. Consult: Cooley, Constitutional Limitations: Parsons, Contract. See POSTAGE STAMPS.