“We lost that stamp five months ago.”

“You lost it?” I asked.

“A part-time counter worker left it lying out on the packing table over a weekend,” the clerk said, pulling a heavy black bound ledger from a shelf under the register.

“Our owner filed a lost seal report with the Secretary of State on May tenth,” the clerk said, sliding a blue carbon copy of the state report across the counter.

“Stamp seal number four was officially voided four months before your bank document was stamped,” he said.