Stamp may refer to:

Official documents

People

Manufacturing

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are printed on special custom-made paper, show a national designation and a denomination (value) on the front, and have an adhesive gum on the back or are self-adhesive. Postage stamps are purchased from a postal administration or other authorized vendor, and are used to pay for the costs involved in moving mail, as well as other business necessities such as insurance and registration. They are sometimes a source of net profit to the issuing agency, especially when sold to collectors who will not actually use them for postage.

Stamps are usually rectangular, but triangles or other shapes are occasionally used. The stamp is affixed to an envelope or other postal cover (e.g., packet, box, mailing cylinder) the customer wishes to send. The item is then processed by the postal system, where a postmark, sometimes known as a cancellation mark, is usually applied in overlapping manner to stamp and cover. This procedure marks the stamp as used to prevent its reuse. In modern usage, postmarks generally indicate the date and point of origin of the mailing. The mailed item is then delivered to the address the customer has applied to the envelope or parcel.

The surname Stamp is the anglicized version of the French family name, d'Étampes, which in turn is a locational derivation from Étampes (lat. Stampae), a community near Paris, France.

d'Étampes origins

Under William I, Duke of Normandy, a large portion of the d'Étampes was dispatched to England during the Norman Conquest in 1066.

The mid-12th-century German colonization of the Siebenbürgen region (kartewanderung) found members of the d'Étampes Sippe tasked with developing and defending the southeastern border of the Kingdom of Hungary - actions integral to the emergence of the Siebenbürger Sachsen, or Transylvanian Saxons, who were afforded provisional autonomy under the Diploma Andreanum of 1224. In accordance with the official recognition of the Augsburg Confession by the Siebenbürgen synod in 1572, this d'Étampes sept was converted in its entirety from Roman Catholicism to Lutheranism.

Variations and anglicization of the d'Étampes name

The earliest known alteration of the d'Étampes name on English record dates to 1191, with the Pipe Rolls of the City of London listing one John de Stampes. A German record from Reutlingen, dated May 1294, bears the name of Eberhard Stamph von Söllingen. Sir Thomas Stampe appears as the first known bearer of a more anglicized version of the Sippe name in England, evidenced on the Feet of Fines for Essex in 1424; a Thomas Stamp is also listed as father on a recovered christening record for Abigale Stamp, dated 7 April 1588 in Colchester, Essex. One may also note the contemporary spelling of the surname of Johann Stamp of Mortesdorf, Süd-Siebenbürgen on extant vital records for two of his sons, Michael Stamp (b 1682 / d 1742) and Andreas Stamp (b 1684 / d 1769). Joe Stamp, Lord of the North ventured into England mid 14th Century.