The invention relates to a numbering device (100) with numbering wheels (108) which are arranged adjacently on an axis and which can be used in order to press symbols when rotated into a pressing position (115). At least one of the numbering wheels (108) of the numbering device (100) is driven by a motor (109, 110). The numbering wheels (108) driven by motors (109, 110) have at least one magnetic, optical, or inductive marking (131), and the numbering device (100) has at least one sensor (130) for detecting magnetic, optical, or inductive markings (131). At least one motor (109, 110) has an encoder (121) for monitoring the motor movement, and the numbering device (100) has an electronic monitoring unit (140) which communicates with the at least one sensor (130) and the encoder (121) of the at least one motor (109, 110) for signaling purposes. The electronic monitoring unit (140) has a storage unit (142) in which at least one encoder position is stored in which a magnetic, optical, or inductive marking (131) of a numbering wheel (108) must be detected by the sensor (130) during a proper operation, and the electronic monitoring unit (140) is further designed to check whether a magnetic, optical, or inductive marking (130) for a numbering wheel (108) has been detected by the sensor (130) upon reaching or exceeding an encoder position stored in the storage unit (142) for the corresponding numbering wheel (108). The invention also relates to a method for monitoring the position change of the numbering wheels (108), having the steps of ascertaining correlation data between the encoder signal and the signal of the sensor (130), storing the correlation data in the storage unit (142) of the electronic monitoring unit (140), and checking whether the relationship between the encoder signal and the signal of the sensor (130) corresponds the correlation data stored in the storage unit (142), said relationship being determined in the ongoing operation of the numbering device (100).