A Delaware professional engineer seal carries three things: your name as licensed, the legend "professional engineer" and your license number. The statute leaves the diameter and the outline open, and it allows an embossed, rubber stamp or digital format. New licensees also face a filing deadline that catches people out. This page covers the elements, the formats, the sealing duty and that deadline.
Engineer Seal Stamps compliance desk. Checked against 24 Del. C. § 2829(a) and the Association of Professional Engineers. Sources read September 2026.
| Requirement | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Yes. Final engineering documents issued or filed for public record are dated and carry the signature and the seal. | 24 Del. C. § 2830(a) |
| Required elements | Your name as licensed, the legend professional engineer, and your license number. | 24 Del. C. § 2829(a) |
| Size | No diameter is published. One and five eighths inches is a common production figure among stamp makers rather than a Delaware rule. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Shape | Not stated. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Devices allowed | Three formats sit in the statute itself: "The seal format may be embossing, rubber stamp or digital." | 24 Del. C. § 2829(a), (b) |
| Signing and dating | A sealed document is dated and carries the signature alongside the impression. | 24 Del. C. § 2830(a), (b) |
| Documents covered | Final drawings, specifications and documents that involve engineering practice, once they are issued or placed on public record. | 24 Del. C. § 2830(a) |
| Electronic seal | Authorized, and left unspecified. No technology, standard or vendor is named. | 24 Del. C. § 2829(a), (b)(2) |
| Proof of seal, new licensees | Six months from approval of the application to file proof of the Delaware seal. Miss it and the Council moves the licensee into delinquent status. | 24 Del. C. §§ 2829(a), 2825 |
| Sealing after a license lapses | Not addressed. Neither of the two seal sections says anything about using the device once a license has run out. | 24 Del. C. §§ 2829(a), 2825 |
Licensed in more than one place? Check each jurisdiction in professional engineer seal requirements by state.
What has to appear on a Delaware PE seal?
Three items, and only three. Your name as licensed, the legend "professional engineer", and your license number. The statute names those and stops there, leaving the rest of the layout to the design authorized by the Council.
No engineering branch or discipline sits in that list, which is worth checking against artwork carried over from another state. Our post on the element list for a Delaware PE seal or stamp walks the same three items in order.
Does Delaware require a seal at all?
Yes, and the duty sits in statute rather than in an administrative regulation. Final drawings, specifications and documents that involve engineering practice are dated and carry both the signature and the seal once they are issued or placed on public record.
That places the obligation on the licensee who prepared or approved the work, not on the firm and not on the reviewing agency. More background sits in our overview of what the Delaware professional engineer seal does on a document.
What size and shape is a Delaware engineer seal?
Delaware publishes neither. No diameter, ring count, lettering height or outline appears in the cited statutes, so there is no published figure to point a plan reviewer at.
One and five eighths inches is what stamp makers commonly cut for Delaware engineers, and that is a production convention rather than a rule. Order at that size if you like it, but do not describe it to anyone as the state specification, because the state did not set one.
Which devices may a Delaware engineer use?
All three. The statute states outright that "The seal format may be embossing, rubber stamp or digital", so an embosser, an inked stamp and a digital seal image each satisfy the format question on their own.
For paper filings an inked rubber stamp is the practical buy, because the sheet has to show the seal, the signature and the date together and a raised impression with no pigment reproduces poorly on a copier. Our notes on choosing a Delaware PE stamp format go into the trade-off.
How do the signature and the date go on the document?
Together with the seal. A sealed document is dated and carries the signature alongside the impression, which makes the date its own element rather than something the seal supplies.
Nothing in the cited sections asks you to sign across the impression, so placement is yours to arrange as long as all three appear and stay legible.
Which documents have to be sealed?
Final drawings, specifications and documents that involve engineering practice, once issued or placed on public record. Two conditions do the narrowing: the document has to be final, and it has to leave your hands.
No carve-out for preliminary or draft work appears in the cited sections, so there is no published category list to work from beyond that one sentence.
What does Delaware say about electronic sealing?
It is authorized and left unspecified. The statute permits a digital seal format, and lets the seal, the signature and the date be produced or sent in electronic form, then names no technology, no tamper test and no approved provider.
The practical consequence is that the receiving agency's submission rules, rather than the engineering statute, will usually decide what an electronic set has to look like.
What is the six month proof of seal deadline?
The seal section puts its enforcement at the front end of a career rather than the back. A new licensee has six months from approval of the application to file proof of the Delaware seal, and missing that window moves the licensee into delinquent status with the Council.
So the seal is not a task to leave until a project needs one. Order it, take a clean impression, and file the proof well inside the window. Background on the licensing route sits in our post on Delaware engineering certification, and on the body itself in the Delaware board of professional engineers.
What happens to the seal if a license lapses?
Not addressed. Neither of the seal sections carries a clause about sealing after a license has expired, and no surrender or destruction duty appears in them either.
Silence is not permission to keep sealing. It means the consequence would come from the licensing provisions rather than from the seal sections, and the cited text does not describe it.
What should you send when ordering a Delaware PE stamp?
Your name exactly as it appears on the license, your license number, and the legend professional engineer. Confirm the Council authorized artwork before you order, since the statute defers the rest of the design to it.
Tell us the format you need as well. A paper submission set and an electronic set are different orders, and the sheet size you work at usually decides which diameter reads cleanly in a title block.
How do you check an impression before using it?
Strike a test impression on the paper stock your filings use, then read the three statutory items back off it: name, license number, legend. Anything that has closed up or run together fails the test.
Photocopy the test sheet and check it again. A seal that looks sharp in the hand and vanishes on a copy is the usual reason a sealed drawing comes back from a reviewer.
Delaware geologists seal under a separate rule; see the Delaware geologist seal and stamp requirements.
Frequently asked questions
Does the word Delaware have to appear inside the seal?
The statute names three items and Delaware is not among them. The device is still a Delaware seal, and the Council authorized design is the reference for anything the three item list does not cover.
Does my engineering discipline go on the seal?
No branch or discipline appears in the statutory element list. If your previous state required one, drop it rather than carrying the layout across.
Is an embosser on its own enough for a paper filing?
It is authorized as a format. The practical problem is reproduction, since an uninked raised impression photocopies poorly and the sheet has to show the seal, the signature and the date together.
Does the license number change if I am reinstated after delinquency?
The cited sections do not address it. Confirm your number with the Council before ordering a replacement device, because the number is one of the three fixed items on the face of the seal.
Is there a published seal diameter I can cite to a reviewer?
No. The cited statutes set no dimension at all, so any figure you are quoted is a manufacturing choice. Ask the reviewing agency if a submission standard applies to the sheet rather than to the seal.
Can the same seal image be used for electronic submissions?
The statute allows a digital format and a seal, signature and date created or transmitted electronically, without naming a technology. Check the receiving agency's requirements before reusing a scan of an inked impression.
Send us your name as licensed and your license number and we will set the artwork against the three statutory items before cutting. Browse the Delaware stamps and seals collection to start.
