Dickinson paper, so called from its inventor, has a continuous thread, or parallel threads, of silk in the centre of its substance, embedded there in the pulp at an early stage of the manufacture.
Paraphe is the flourish which is sometimes added at the end of a signature: examples on stamps are found in the 1873-6 issues of Porto Rico.
Patte.—French for the loose flap of an envelope; it is sometimes (but incorrectly) used for Rosace or Tresse, the ornament on the flap.
Pelure.—See Paper.
Pen-cancelled denotes cancellation by pen-and-ink, as opposed to the more customary postmark; it usually implies fiscal use.
Percé is a French term denoting slits or pricks, no part of the paper being removed, in contradistinction to perforated, in which small discs of paper are punched out. There are several kinds of perçage, or, in English, rouletting:—
Percé en arc, the cuts being curved, so that, on severing a pair of stamps, the edge of one shows small arches, whilst the other has a series of small scallops, something like, but more curved than, the perforations on the edges of an ordinary perforated stamp.
Percé en ligne: the cuts or slits are straight, as if a continuous line had been broken up into small sections. This variety usually goes by the English term rouletted.
Percé en pointe denotes that the slits are comparatively large and cut evenly in zigzag, so that the edges of a stamp show a series of equal-sided triangular projections.
Percé en points, usually expressed as pin-perforated, implies a pricking of holes with a sharp point, but without removal of paper, which is merely pushed aside.