Date stamps are mechanical devices used to imprint date on large bunches of documents, like notices calling meetings, stock certificates dispatch, or acknowledgement of receipt of tax filings. The dates relevant to such activities are very important as there are legal stipulations relating to them. Accordingly, the inwards and outwards departments of all companies and government agencies have an inbuilt procedure for affixing date on the documents being received or dispatched by them.

Rubber date stamps are the most commonly used date stamps. These stamps have a wooden handle, which is attached to a support pulley system on which 6 to 8 flat rubber bands are loaded. There are engravings on these rubber bands. In traditional rubber date stamps, single digits from 0 to 9 are carved in such a way that combinations of numbers on these bands represent month, date and year. By rotating the bands to obtain required numbers, the exact date is arrived. This date is tested on a waste paper by tapping the bossing on inkpad, and imprinting it. This is necessary because embossed numbers do not appear like normal numbers. After confirmation, the required date is affixed on the entire lot of documents, almost mechanically. Manual implementation of such a procedure would be time consuming, laborious, and error prone.

Rubber date stamps are inexpensive. They can be used to represent dates in multiple formats, i.e., year, month, and date format, month, year and date format, or year, date and month format. They can also be used with different color inks depending on requirements. Of recent, rubber date stamps are being designed to hold the dies of additional words like "Confidential," "Copy," "Draft," etc. These words help in organizing the documents more efficiently. Self-inking rubber date stamps are also available in markets.