Merchants' marks are as old as the sealings of the third millennium BCE found in Sumer that originated in the Indus Valley. Impressions of cloth, strings and other packing material on the reverse of tags with seal impressions indicate that the Harappan seals were used to control economic administration and trade. Amphorae from the Roman Empire can sometimes be traced to their sources from the inscriptions on their handles. Commercial inscriptions in Latin, known as Tituli picti, appear on Roman containers used for trade.

Symbolic merchants' marks continued to be used by artisans and townspeople of the medieval and early modern eras to identify themselves and authenticate their goods. These distinctive and easily recognizable marks often appeared in their seals on documents and on products made for sale. They are often found on tombstones and in works of stained glass, brass and stone, serving in place of heraldic imagery, which could not be used by the middle classes. They were the precursors of hallmarks, printers' marks and modern-day trademarks.