#172 Special Printing ? 10 Cent Jefferson Bank Note Issue

A friend showed me this. Could this possibly be #172 Special Printing? It looks and feels like hard paper. Were there fakes of this number?

Exceedingly unlikely. The special printings did not have gum and while valid for postage were not used as such.

The Special Printing was just that, with printing plates carefully cleaned, the printing done with care. The engraved lines show very distinctly. At the left and right sides, there are short horizontal lines that should be very, very separate and clear. The vertical shading lines below the ribbon are similarly distinct. Compare with the first 2 examples here (other scans are mostly slightly lower quality):
http://www.usphila.com/us/stamp/pri...t-172-page-1

A further test is that nearly all Special Printings were cut apart from the sheets with scissors.

The engraving details in yours are either somewhat muddy or worn, therefore unfortunately not a #172. Continental had a thick paper; maybe that's what you have.

Fakes probably exist but many more have been just misidentified more than anything else.

The Special Printings were also not that easy to acquire, as they were only available from the office of the 3rd Assistant Postmaster General in Washington, DC, either in person or by return mail for which return postage and registration fees were required, so your ungummed "special printing" cost face value plus 16 cents. (A letter requesting Special Printing plus return postage and the then current registration fees of 10 cents} Another reason for their less than spectacular sales figures.