Marsh was not a printer so he arranged for the stamps to be executed by someone else. The only source we have for the names of the die engraver, Nathaniel Dearborn, and printer, T. R. Holland, is that notorious philatelic rogue, S. Allen Taylor, whose own forgeries of this issue are well known. No record of the printing layout exists, although Taylor offered his own fanciful explanation. No full sheets exist today. Reconstructing the layout of the printing stone is thus a challenge.
Much use is made of ink skips and stray color marks found in each stamp position.
Click Here for Current Study Topics. Clark received the stamps on September 2, 1861. The quick fulfillment of this order, done as the United States was being torn by the start of the Civil War, was possible only because the stamps were lithographed despite Clark's order for an engraved stamp. Proofs from the lithograph printing exist. The engraved stamps have none of the ink skips and other position marks of the lithographic printings.