The invention relates to a device for the manual stamping or embossing of characters and symbols into the surface of roll-shaped items, such as sleeves and/or rolls made of metal which can be placed rotatably in a receiver formed from two adjacent horizontally arranged bearing rollers and onto which an embossing or printing plate bearing embossing characters, symbols or printing symbols can be pressed with the embossing side which is displaceable in the horizontal direction. To achieve a particularly simple construction of this embossing device and for easy exchange of the characters, the embossing and/or printing plate is designed as an embossing rod which engages with a sliding surface below a platen above the item to be embossed and is displaceable in the longitudinal direction in a lateral guide with simultaneous pressure on the item to be embossed, the characters and symbols raised from the surface of the embossing side being pressed into the surface of the item to be embossed.
