Emphasis Preaching Journal

Everyone has a way of marking ownership. Coins bear the image of the reigning monarch (Queen Elizabeth II for British Commonwealth countries), or in the case of democratic countries, symbols and important figures of the country (George Washington, the eagle, government buildings, and the like). Book owners, too, use stamps or bookplates (ex libris) to identify ownership. With the invention of Gutenberg's printing press and the resulting proliferation of books, marking ownership became important.