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

The three authorized sizes are designations, not a floor. There is no minimum diameter in the rule, and a 1½-inch seal is not on the list. (ARM 24.183.511(3))

"State of Montana" is not a required element. Subsection (2) lists name, license number and legend, and the implementing statute adds nothing. The board's FAQ asks for the bare word "Montana". (ARM 24.183.511(2); MCA 37-67-314)

The dual legend drops the second "Professional": the rule reads "Professional Engineer and Land Surveyor," not "Professional Engineer and Professional Land Surveyor." (ARM 24.183.511(2))

The number that goes on the seal is the short form, such as 12345PE. The certificate-style number the department issues, PEL-PE-LIC-#####, is not what the rule's examples show. (ARM 24.183.511(2))

Yes — the city and state of the architect's place of business is one of only four things MCA 37-65-308 puts on the seal, alongside the architect's name, the license number, and the words "Licensed Architect, State of Montana". No other Montana design professional carries one: the engineers' and land surveyors' rule lists the licensee's name, license number and legend, and stops there. An architect who moves offices is carrying a seal that no longer states the statutory fact. (MCA 37-65-308; ARM 24.183.511(2))

None is prescribed. ARM 24.114.402 requires all technical submissions prepared by an architect to be stamped and signed with the architect's seal and permits electronically generated seals and signatures, but it prescribes no contents, no legend and no size; MCA 37-65-308, which supplies the contents, states no diameter either. The 1 5/8 inch pocket seal, 2 inch desk seal and 2 inch rubber stamp seal so often quoted for Montana are the authorized sizes in the engineers' and land surveyors' rule, and they do not reach architects. (ARM 24.114.402; MCA 37-65-308; ARM 24.183.511(3))

No Montana architect provision requires a date. ARM 24.114.402(1) asks that technical submissions be stamped and signed with the architect's seal and that the permit set bear the architect's original signature; neither it nor MCA 37-65-308 mentions dating. The seal guidance the two boards publish jointly makes the split explicit — it lists plans that have not been sealed, signed and dated as a red flag, then annotates the dating half "[dated by engineers only]", and does the same for non-dated revisions, "[date required by engineers only]". The engineers' dating duty comes from MCA 37-67-314, a statute that governs professional engineers and professional land surveyors. (ARM 24.114.402(1); MCA 37-65-308; Boards of Architects and of Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, "Use of Seals" guidance; MCA 37-67-314)

The Board of Architects and Landscape Architects, in chapter 24.114 of the administrative rules — not the Board of Professional Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors, whose seal rule is ARM 24.183.511 in chapter 24.183. The consequence is a different legend and a different state line: the architect's statute prescribes the single phrase "Licensed Architect, State of Montana", while the engineers' and surveyors' rule requires no state name at all and that board's own FAQ asks only for the bare word "Montana". Neither "Registered Architect" nor a bare "Architect" is the Montana wording. (ARM 24.114.402; MCA 37-65-308; ARM 24.183.511(2))