An impression made by public authority, in pursuance of law, upon paper or parchment, upon which certain legal proceedings, conveyances, or contracts are required to be written, and for which a tax or duty is exacted. A small label or strip of paper, hearing a particular device, printed and sold by the government, and required to be attached to mall-matter, and to some other articles subject to duty or excise. Stamp Act. In English law. Acts regulating the stamps upon deeds, contracts, agreements, papers in law proceedings, bills and notes, letters, receipts, and other papers. Stamp duties. Duties imposed upon and raised from stamps upon parchment and paper, and forming a branch of the perpetual revenue of the kingdom. 1 Bl. Comm. 323.