Mississippi Architect seal requirements: size, wording, and the rule that sets them

Not the engineering board. Architects are licensed by the Mississippi State Board of Architecture, and the seal rule is Rule 3.4 of 30 Miss. Admin. Code Part 201, Chapter 3 — a separate agency, a separate website and a separate Part of the administrative code from the Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Surveyors, whose rules sit in Part 901. The separation carries into the drawings: under Rule 4.5.8, any portions of working drawings or plans prepared by registered consultants bear the seal and the signature of that consultant, and Rule 4.5.5 excuses the architect from stamping sheets prepared by licensed consultants. (30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 201, Ch. 3, Rule 3.4; Rule 4.5.5; Rule 4.5.8)

Not until the Board has the seal on file. A sample of the seal must be furnished to the Board within sixty days of the date shown on the Official Notice of Registration letter, and until the Board or its designee has received and approved that seal the license is not considered active and practice is not allowed. Failure to provide proof of seal is itself grounds for disciplinary action. The seal design therefore has to exist and clear the Board before the first sheet is sealed, rather than be settled when the first project arrives; the sample the rule asks for is an impression of the seal or an imprint of the rubber stamp. (30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 201, Ch. 3, Rule 3.4)

Circular and 1 1/2 inches in diameter — one fixed figure, with no range and no tolerance in the rule. The 1 5/8 inch to 2 inch spread commonly quoted for Mississippi belongs to the engineering and surveying board's Rule 6.2 and governs its own licensees, not architects. Rule 3.4 also closes the contents: the name, the registration number, and the words "Registered Architect State of Mississippi" — a single phrase, not a legend plus a separate state line, and not "Licensed Architect". (30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 201, Ch. 3, Rule 3.4; 30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 901, Ch. 6, Rule 6.2(2)(b))

Over it. Rule 3.2.4 requires the manual, electronic or digital signature of the architect and the date of execution to appear over the stamp on all documents prepared by the architect or under the architect's responsible control for use in Mississippi, and Rule 4.5.7 repeats the obligation for every document listed in Rule 4.5.5. The Board's penalty schedule treats "failure to sign over stamp" as its own offense, with a minimum penalty of a letter of reprimand and a $500 fine. Mississippi engineers have no placement rule at all — their board says in terms that it does not dictate where the signature or date go — so guidance written for engineers does not transfer to architects here. (30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 201, Ch. 3, Rule 3.2.4; Rule 4.5.7; Rule 5.9)

No. Rule 4.5.10 permits rubber stamp, embossed, transparent self-adhesive and computer generated seals, then adds that such stamps or seals shall not include the registrant's signature. A stamp with the signature drawn into the artwork is non-compliant, even though a signature has to sit over the stamp on the document under Rule 3.2.4 — the two must be separate acts, and the security of an electronically distributed signature is the sealing architect's responsibility. (30 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. 201, Ch. 3, Rule 4.5.10; Rule 3.2.4; Rule 4.5.7(C))