The run is not a race as such: each entry is given a 50-page set of notes to get between five checkpoints; each checkpoint is open for between two and three hours and you must get your card stamped during that time in order to arrive at Rockingham before 6pm.

The group consisted of a skilled engraver, a scribe to forge the seals of the Governor and Intendant, a drummer to conceal the sounds of cards being stamped, and the sergeant mayor, who would exchange the real cards for counterfeits when collecting the pay for the garrison.

There were cards for drivers, inspectors, mechanics and officials, all heavily stamped with the word "Specimen," but there was another type that interested Harry more.

The information should be typed on the card stamped with the Hopkins number.

He handed it back, then watched closely as Chan Shui took what he called a "template" - a thin card stamped with a recognition code in English and Mandarin - and slotted it into the panel.

They bring a card stamped in the town halls along the route and sign in at a registry.

Paper of another sort, the card stamped for time when an employee starts and leaves work, is being replaced in some places by positive identification devices such as palm readers.

And as her friends, the artistic elite of Salacus Fields, laughed and cheered them on, Gazid had handed her a stiff white card stamped with a simple crest of a three by three chessboard.

Several casinos sell custom-made sets of chips and one or two decks of cards stamped with the name of the casino on them.

It was a calling card stamped with the name of a prominent bootmaker in town.