A punch press tool for stamping successive multicharacter impressions into a workpiece such as a piece of steel, sheet metal, or other workpiece, includes a guide body in which a stamp driver is slidably mounted for being driven downwardly toward the workpiece by a punch press ram which is a standard part of a high speed commercial punch press. A multicharacter marking stamp is supported at the lower end of the stamp driver for reciprocal movement therewith. The marking stamp includes multicharacter wheels that are rotated automatically during operation for advancing characters in sequence responsive to the movement of a character advancing arm. At least one character stamp operating lever is operatively associated with the punch press tool for articulation responsive to motion imparted to the tool by the ram. The lever has an operating element that is operatively associated with the character advancing arm of the multicharacter stamp for indexing the arm to enable successive characters thereof to be placed in an operating position responsive to a stroke of the punch press ram.