Affixing receipt and dispatch dates on documents is a standard procedure in government departments and corporate offices. These dates are generally referred to as some legal procedure applicable to these departments and firms. Failure to produce evidence related to these dates entails penalties and legal action. Therefore, these organizations take utmost care to affix dates on their records and correspondence. Date stamps are mechanical devices used for imprinting such dates.

Traditional date stamps require inkpads. They are practically useless without such additional kit. A sleeker device has recently been developed, which has inbuilt self-inking mechanism. These self-inking date stamps are generally made of plastics or metals, unlike traditional date stamps, which are made of wood. There is a small replaceable inkpad within these self-inking date stamps. When the device is not being used, the date stamp die rests on the inbuilt inkpad that moves aside by a spring mechanism, when pressed. A plastic cover is also provided to prevent drying of ink.

The mechanism for changing dates in self-ink stamp pads is similar to rubber date stamps. There are six to eight flat rubber bands with single digit numbers, i.e., 0 to 9, carved on them. These bands are loaded on separate cylinders, which can be rotated. A combination of numbers on these bands gives the required date, month, and year. Such mechanism allows representation of multiple formats of date, i.e., year, month and date, or date, month and year.

Other die pieces like "Confidential", "Faxed", etc., are also available with self-inking date stamps. These additional words and phrases help in tracing and organizing the documents.