Stamp Collecting Encyclopaedia Letter D

Dandy roll

A dandy roll is a wire mesh roller used in papermaking to produce a watermark.
\The paper pulp passes the dandy roll after it leaves the vat. It is upon the roller that the watermarks are woven. Variations in the texture of the roller produce the varieties of laid, wove and other papers.

Dated corners

Several sheets of France and French colonies have the date printed in the corners of the margin since 1992. Collectors of France refer to these corners as "dated corners".
Usually the dated corners are collected as blocks of four.

Date stamp

A hand or machine stamp containing a date is called a date stamp or circular date stamp (c.d.s). A date stamp can be applied for cancellation of the stamp but there are other reasons for the use of date stamps too.
In The Netherlands usually a stamp bears a date. However in the 19th century two types of postmarks were used without date: The numeral postmark and the "franco" postmark.
Nowadays a round "ptt postmark" without date is used at the post office when by accident the stamp has not been stamped at the sorting centre or when a postmark was printed by the printer in the case of mass-mailing.

Definitives

Definitive stamps are found on everyday mail most. They often feature kings or queens, presidents, important statesmen, simple figures, or national symbols.
At the moment in The Netherlands the definitive stamps feature queen Beatrix (75 cent - 10 guilders) and the lower values bear figures (Type Crouwel, 5 cent - 80 cent).
Definitives are around for many years and are printed in large quantities (compare: Commemoratives).

Demonetised

A stamp is demonetised if the postal authorities issues a statement that the stamp is no longer valid for postage anymore. Stamps are very often demonetised after a change in currency.
Every country has its own way in dealing with this matter. In the United States of America all stamps are still valid for postage, while in Great Britain stamps bearing values in other than decimal currency were demonetised in February 1972.
In The Netherlands commemoratives were only valid for the short period of approximately two years till 1970.

Denomination

The denomination value of a stamp is the face value as expressed in words or numbers on a stamp. Sometimes other methods are used to express the face value.
Today in many countries stamps are issued on which the value of the postal service is expressed by a letter (e.g. France). In those cases no new stamps have to be printed when the postal rates change: The stamps will simply be sold at a higher price at the post-office.
Sometimes the buyer of a stamp has to pay a little extra for a stamp when a stamp is issued for charity purposes.

Departmental stamps

Departmental stamps are designed or overprinted for use of Government departments. Collectors of U.S. stamps call these officials "departmental stamps".
The word "Department" or contraction "Dept." figures on several series of stamps supplied to the U.S. Departments from 1873 onwards. They were supplied to the departments of State, Treasury, War, Navy etc.

Desulphurate

Some printing inks derived from metallic bases are liable to become impregnated with sulphur. Colours to which this may apply are: vermilion, orange, yellow, brown and blue.
Stamps printed in such inks are often affected by turning brownish black or black. Another term for desulphurate is "oxidised".
To desulphurate them (restoring the original colour) they are treated with peroxide of hydrogen.

Dickinson paper

Paper that is named after its inventor John Dickinson. This paper was used for the Mulready and other envelopes and was applied in rare cases for adhesive stamps too. It has continuous silk threads embedded in the paper.

Die

A die is the original single engraving on metal or other material, from which reproductions are taken to form the plate or stone from which stamps are printed.
A die is used to provide sufficient duplicates for the master dies. These may be transferred by means of roller dies to the steel plate or used as moulds for electrotyping.
Nowadays prints of dies are photographed for the making of the make-up of printing plates.

Die proof

A carefully printed impression from a die is called a die proof. Often a die proof is printed on a hand press on special paper so that the engraver's work can be seen at it's best. Die proofs are normally in black.
The etcher uses a die proof to check his work. Nowadays die proofs are hardly used as the designer uses a computer to make the design and plate printing is not used at a large scale anymore.

Doctor blade

A doctor blade is a steel blade which wipes excess ink from the printing press cylinder.

Double impression

A double impression is an error and is created when a sheet of stamps passed twice through the press by accident. The sheet is then printed twice.
An appearance of double impression is sometimes due to a slurred print, when paper, not being firmly held, has touched the plate before it is in its correct position to receive the proper impression.

Double perforation

A double perforation is a mistake in the production of stamps, whereby near one or more sides of a stamp the perforation is punched twice by mistake. There can be space between these perforations, or the perforations are nearly coincident. In the latter case the doubling produces a row of tiny teeth or indentations.

Double print

When a postage stamp or a part of a sheet bears more than one clear impression of the printed design it is referred to as "double print".
A double print is the result of a mistake of the printer and therefore called printer's error.

Double-ring c.d.s.

A circular handstamp consisting of two concentric circles is called a "double-ring". Such date postmarks have been used in many countries.

Double surcharge

A true double surcharge should be a clearly double impression of the whole and not just a slurred single impression of the print of a surcharge. A double surcharge is a printer's error.

Dry print

When a postage stamp image or overprint is printed by mistake with a deficiency in ink it is referred to as dry print. When the print was made without any ink it is called an albino.

Dullwich mark

A Dulwich mark is an English type of postmark which was first used in 1894. This double arc type postmark became the standard British type for many years.

Dumb cancellation

An obliteration by hand stamp containing neither figure nor letter is called a dumb cancellation.
Very often these postmarks are made of cork and used for a variety of purposes including: cancellation of postage stamps, war time security cancelling, and postage census. These postmarks are usually very rare because they have been used only briefly.

Duplex handstamp

A Duplex handstamp is a postmark used for cancellation which has two sections. One section is used to obliterate the adhesive and a second portion of the stamp indicates the office and date of posting.
Most double datestamps are not true duplexes, because a true duplex stamp has the two elements joined together in one design.

Duty plate

A plate bearing a common design for a series of stamp denominations, or groups of colonial stamps, but leaving blank spaces for the addition of figures or country name is called a key plate. These gaps are filled with a second plate, known as the duty plate.

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