Bucharest city tales: The love of Stampilas and meeting the Queen of Stamps

Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she talks about the Romanians' love for the use of Stampilas and the urge to stamp everything.

When arriving in Romania, among the first words encountered, besides Buna Ziua, is the word Stampila. Which means a stamp in Romania. A tool hardly seen in Denmark anymore, but here in Bucharest, the rubber stamp is for sure alive, and you can even find stampila shops, which offer all sorts of stampilas for any occasion imaginable. I wasn’t expecting there to be a huge market for the sale of stampilas here in Romania, but I was very wrong . Romanian office people, especially those working behind counters, have a fascination for stamps and stamping papers. Papers have to be signed, translated, certified and then, most important of all, stamped. If you have a problem with documents, it is usually because they are missing stamps. A paper without a stamp is nothing, it has no real value, it is just a piece of paper, but when it has a stamp on, it can be filed and put among the other stamped papers, and never be piled with the unstamped papers again. Because there is a clear difference between a stamped and an unstamped paper here in Romania. And there is a whole technique to the stamping. It is not done quietly. No, it has to have the sound of stamping. When you see people stamp, which you will see in each bank, post office, administrative office, you will hear them stamp with a techno bass like thud. The sound of the stamping is indeed a part of the process. And remember, the more stamps on a paper, the more important it becomes. One stamp is OK, but several stamps make it indeed an important paper, raising its status to that of a true document. And the stampers stand out, usually the stampila is within easy reach and is clearly displayed for all to see on their desks. Having a stamp means power. The stamper has power, because they know, like you know, that you need this stamp, and if they say no to stamping your paper, there is a long journey ahead of you to get the stamp. At times there is an intense atmosphere between you and the stamper, where all your charm and diplomatic skills have to be used to get the acknowledgement for your simple paper to be upgrade to a stamped paper. I personally will never forget the day, I met a woman whom I would name the Queen of Stampilas. I had to go to some kind of office, sadly I cannot remember where. A lady was sitting behind a desk, and around her neck was a relatively solid looking gold chain. To my astonishment instead of the usual jewellery at the end of the golden chain, there was a Stamp. I looked more than once since I could hardly believe what I was seeing. I felt honored because I instantly knew, this was a special moment I would now witness, and being in the presence of the Queen of Stampilas made me a little humble, because this I had never seen before. Meeting for the first time a truly committed stamper, who was wearing the stamp as jewelry. At the same time I thought, this must be the highest “award” an expat can ever achieve living in Romania, and I daydreamed a little about the day I myself would maybe be wearing a gold chain with a stamp around my neck. What a day that would be, what recognition of integration in Romania. I looked while she opened a little box, and with great pride lifted her stampila still on the chain up into the air, like an athlete holding up an Olympic gold medal , forcing it onto the black ink in the box. Then the stamping of the papers began, not with a smile on her face, not showing her power. I looked and there was this silence in the room, where only the stamping could be heard, when the stamping was over, she looked up and with a tiny twist of a smile on her face, she handed me over the papers. They had now without doubt been transformed into documents, and I looked at her and said' thank you', knowing that I had witnessed something very special that maybe I would never would see again.