A South Carolina notary public must have a seal of office, and it carries three things only: the words notary public, the words State of South Carolina, and your name. An embosser is allowed in place of an ink stamp. Commissions run ten years here, the longest term in the country. This page covers the wording, the device choice and what a renewal changes.
Engineer Seal Stamps compliance desk. Checked against S.C. Code § 26-1-5(18) and the South Carolina Secretary of State. Sources read September 2026.
| Requirement | What the rule says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Seal required | Yes. A notary public has a seal of office. | S.C. Code Title 26, ch. 1 |
| Required wording | Three items: the words notary public, the words State of South Carolina, and the notary's name. | S.C. Code § 26-1-5(18) |
| County on the seal | The required list names three items and a county is not among them. | S.C. Code § 26-1-5(18) |
| Expiration date on the seal | Not one of the three required items. | S.C. Code § 26-1-5(18) |
| Dimensions and outline | Not specified. No diameter, border or orientation is set. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Ink color | Not specified. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
| Embosser | Permitted as a full alternative to an ink stamp. | S.C. Code § 26-1-5(18) |
| Commission term | Ten years, the longest term in the country. | South Carolina Secretary of State |
| Name, address or county change | A Change in Status Form and a $10 fee go to the Secretary of State inside 45 days. | South Carolina Secretary of State |
| Lost or stolen seal | Not addressed for a paper seal. No report and no deadline is set. | Not addressed in the cited rules |
South Carolina is one row in our notary seal requirements by state table, which sets each jurisdiction's rule side by side.
Does South Carolina require a notary seal?
Yes. A South Carolina notary public has a seal of office, so the device is part of the job rather than an optional purchase. What the state asks the seal to carry, though, is shorter than most notaries expect.
Three items and nothing more are required. That brevity is the whole story of buying a seal here, and it shapes the renewal question further down the page. Our fuller treatment of South Carolina notary stamp requirements covers the same ground in more detail.
What must a South Carolina notary seal show?
Three items, set by the statutory definition of the device. There is no fourth element and no image requirement, and all three come from that definition rather than from anything left to the die maker.
- The notary's name, as the commission gives it
- The words State of South Carolina
- The words notary public
Anything beyond those three is a design choice rather than a requirement. A worked example of the layout is in our South Carolina stamp format sample.
Does a county have to appear on the seal?
No. The required list names three items and a county is not among them, which separates South Carolina from the many states that build the county of commission into the die.
That absence has a practical consequence. A move between South Carolina counties does not put your seal out of step with the required wording, although the change itself still has to be reported. The reporting duty is set out below.
Does South Carolina set a size or shape for the seal?
Not specified. The cited rules set no diameter, no outline, no border and no orientation, so a round embosser and a rectangular ink stamp are on the same footing as far as the rules are concerned.
Three short lines of wording do not need much area, which is why South Carolina seals tend to be compact. Keep the type large enough that all three items survive a photocopy, since a faint imprint is a practical problem even where no legibility standard is written down. Our guide to South Carolina notary public seal guidelines takes the design question further.
What ink color does South Carolina require?
Not specified. No color is named for the seal in the cited rules, so black, blue and any other color stand equally as far as those provisions go.
Black remains the usual choice for documents that will be scanned or copied, but that is a practical preference rather than a rule. Where a particular receiving office states a preference, follow that office.
Can I use an embosser instead of an ink stamp?
Yes. An embosser is permitted as a full alternative rather than as an accessory, so a South Carolina notary can work with an embosser and no inked device at all.
The trade off is visibility on copies. A raised impression carries no ink, so it can disappear when a document is scanned, which is why many notaries who own an embosser also keep an inked stamp for anything that will be reproduced. Both formats are covered in our closer look at South Carolina notary seals.
How long does a South Carolina commission run?
Ten years, the longest term in the country. That single fact changes how you should think about the seal, because a device bought at the start of a term has a decade of work ahead of it.
It also means the details you send at order time have to be right. Ten years is long enough that a misspelling becomes a decade of misspelled impressions. When a term ends is covered in our note on South Carolina notary seal expiration.
Does a South Carolina renewal mean buying a new seal?
The required wording does not expire. The three items are your name, the phrase notary public, and the phrase State of South Carolina, none of them tied to a term, so a seal carrying only those three still reads correctly into a new commission.
What decides the question is what you had put on the die. A seal carrying only the three required items still reads correctly into a new term; a seal you chose to have dated does not. Worth a moment's thought at order time given the length of the term. The South Carolina notary handbook is the wider reference for the renewal process itself.
What must I report when my name, address or county changes?
Within 45 days you file a Change in Status Form with the South Carolina Secretary of State, together with a $10 fee. The duty covers a change of name, a change of address, and a move into a different county.
Only one of the three touches the die. A name change puts your seal out of step with the first required item, so it means a new seal; an address change or a county move does not, since neither appears on the seal.
Who commissions South Carolina notaries?
The Governor appoints, and the South Carolina Secretary of State administers the commission. The appointment sits with the Governor, while day to day administration, including status changes, sits with the Secretary of State.
That division is why the change of status filing goes to the Secretary of State rather than to the appointing authority. It is also why your name on the seal follows the commission record that office holds.
Is a lost or stolen South Carolina seal reportable?
Not addressed for a paper seal. The cited rules impose no reporting duty, name no office to notify and set no deadline, so the silence here is complete rather than partial.
Report any theft to local law enforcement even so, and order a replacement, since the seal is required for the work. Nothing in the rules read here turns the loss itself into a filing obligation.
What should I send when ordering, and how do I check the impression?
Send your name as it appears on your commission, and tell us whether you want an ink stamp, an embosser or both. If you want anything beyond the three required items on the die, say so at order time rather than afterwards.
When it arrives, press it once on plain white paper and read all three items back: the words notary public, the words State of South Carolina, and your name spelled as the commission has it. Photocopy that sheet and read it again, because a copy is what a receiving party usually sees, and a compact seal is the kind that fades first.
Frequently asked questions
Should I have the expiration date put on my South Carolina seal?
It is not one of the three required items, so the choice is yours. Bear in mind that a dated die is tied to the current term, and South Carolina terms run ten years.
Does moving to another South Carolina county mean buying a new seal?
No. The county does not appear among the required items, so the die is unaffected. The move itself is still reported on a Change in Status Form, with the $10 fee, inside 45 days.
Can I use an embosser on its own in South Carolina?
Yes. It is permitted as a full alternative to an ink stamp, not as an addition to one. The practical caution is that a raised impression may not show up on a scan or a photocopy.
Does the seal have to be round?
No shape is specified in the cited rules. Embossers are usually round and ink stamps usually rectangular, and neither form is required or ruled out.
What happens to my old seal after a name change?
It no longer matches the required name item, since the name on the seal and the name on the commission have parted company. Order a replacement carrying the new name and set the old device aside.
How much of a South Carolina seal can I customize?
Everything outside the three required items is open, including layout, border treatment and device format. The three items themselves are fixed by the definition of the seal.
Have the name on your commission in front of you, then pick an ink stamp or an embosser from our South Carolina notary stamps and seals range and we will set the three required lines for you.
