In eastern countries stamps have been used more commonly than signatures when approving contracts and documents. Unlike finger prints, stamp images do not share similar patterns to each other and the resolution of stamp images is determined by the input status such as pressure under which stamps are put. This paper discusses the development of a system for recognizing stamp images of Korean or Chinese characters. Recognition of stamp images consists of several steps: acquisition of stamp images from an input device, digitization, contrast stretching, noise removal, and matching. We tested the system on 50 stamp images (20 stamp images of Korean characters, 20 images of Chinese characters, and 10 similar images). There was little difference in discrimination rate between the stamp images of Korean character and those of Chinese characters. 46 stamps images out of 50 were successfully recognized, resulting in 92% discrimination rate. Orientation and pressure under which stamps are put played an important role in determining discrimination rate. Automated stamp image recognition can be made more practical and useful by extending the types of stamp images to ellipses and rectangles and by improving the discrimination rate.