I always did the ‘paper check in the mail’ thing too. Usually took a month. Then last year the check never came. I called IRS and they cut another check. I think the first one was probably stolen in the mail. So the whole thing took about 2 1/2 months. This year I opted for direct deposit and had the money in 10 days. Needless to say, I’ll be doing direct deposit hence forward.
The IRS are sticklers for multiple checks being cashed. So if someone else cashed the first one and you cashed the second, you’d hear from the IRS.
This happened to my dad — he “lost” his refund check and requested a second one. A year later, while cleaning his house, we found the original check and cashed it not knowing that he had already cashed the second check. About a year later, we got the letter from the IRS.