Only one pane of 100 of the invert stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in philately. With an additional 18% auction commission fee, a private collector’s final purchase price for the Inverted Jenny postage stamp was $253,700, Scott Trepel, president of Siegel Auctions, said. [38], In 2015 the Postal Service's Inspector General called the issuing of a few right side up Jenny airmail sheets improper because regulations do not allow the deliberate creation and distribution of stamp errors. The souvenir sheet was printed using the intaglio printing process … These were shown by the first stamp in the world to picture an airplane (captioned as "aeroplane carrying mail"), one of the U.S. Parcel Post stamps of 1912–13. [11][10], Initial deliveries went to post offices on Monday, May 13. ", "Rare 'Inverted Jenny' stamp featuring an upside down plane sells for over $1 million at auction", "An aviation flop was a stamp collector's dream and the U.S. The Inverted Jenny appeared in several TV shows and films, including Brewster's Millions, the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" of the animated tv series "The Simpsons", and the episode "One Big Happy Family" of the legal drama For the People. Several others have been damaged, including one that was sucked into a vacuum cleaner. In 1989 the identical unique plate number block Postal Service's website (https://about.usps.com/postal-bulletin/2013/pb22371/html/info_003.htm) and other sources, the $2.00 Inverted Jenny souvenir sheet went on sale nationwide September 22, 2013, and a ceremony was held on that day at the National Postal Museum. 1. By 1971, however, its price had risen to $150,000. Issued to commemorate the start of the first regular airmail service in the United States, the original Jenny stamp was designed to show a Curtiss JN-4H, or "Jenny," the biplane used to deliver the mail. a secret for 43 years until just last month, Senior quarterback tries to change narrative at Bloomfield Hills, War, depression, devastating tragedy: Pandemic isn't their first, or worst, hard time, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. 2017 Scott Cat. FDC 22KT. [17][18] For many years, only five examples, in fact, were known to have survived in never hinged condition. Inverted Jennies are not the most expensive stamps in the world — that title belongs to the one-cent magenta from British Guiana, the only one of which sold for $9.5 million in 2014. Postal Service's nightmare", "How the Inverted Jenny, a 24-Cent Stamp, Came to Be Worth a Fortune", "Siegel Auction Galleries — Power Search", "The Philatelic Foundation Authenticates Stolen Jenny Invert Stamp", "Rare 'Inverted Jenny' Stamp Turns Up 60 Years After Theft", "Bond king Bill Gross in postage stamp feud with rocker son", "Rare stamps at center of 'Bond King' family feud sell for $1.9M", "Stuart Weitzman to Display Rare Stamp That Fulfilled Boyhood Dream", "Rare and Costly Stamps to Go on Display", "Expert stamps out hopes of rare postage find", "Rarest Stamp Error in U.S. History, Inverted Jenny, Flies Again", "Postal Service Announces Very Limited Edition Stamps Circulated with Recent Issue of Famous 'Upside Down' Jenny Stamp", "Rarities of the World Sale 1075: Upright Jenny Souvenir Sheet", "Postal Service's reprinting of famous stamp error broke agency rules", "Miss New Jersey to Present Giveaway of Rare $400,000 Stamp by StampWants.com at APS Ameristamp Expo", "An Inverted Jenny Surfaces. [20][21](A genuine straight-edged copy would have cost Miller only $175.) The Post Office set a controversial rate of 24 cents for the service, much higher than the 3 cents for first-class mail of the time, and decided to issue a new stamp just for this rate, patriotically printed in red and blue, and depicting a Curtiss Jenny JN-4HM, the biplane especially modified for shuttling the mail. Individuals purchasing one of the 100 non-inverted Jenny sheets find a congratulatory note inside the wrapping asking them to call a phone number to receive a certificate of acknowledgement signed by Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe. [10] In examples where the plane is so far off center that it overlaps the frames, it can be seen that the blue ink used to print the plane lies atop the red ink used to print the frames. While he has passed ownership on, his name will remain in the historic record of an elite group of owners of the stamps, the most expensive of which sold for about $1.5 million. [23] Mrs. McCoy’s will had made the American Philatelic Research Library the legal owner of all four stamps in the block. The "Inverted Jenny" was the most requested postage stamp for viewing by visitors at the museum. His father reportedly claims that he himself gave each of his three kids some priceless "Jennys" seven years earlier, on the condition that his grandchildren ultimately inherit them. The Inverted Swan was issued in Perth, Australia in 1855, when a complicated process of producing these stamps through lithography was followed. [5] Prices eventually recovered, for on May 31, 2016, a particularly well-centered Jenny invert, graded XF-superb 95 by Professional Stamp Experts, was sold at a Siegel Auction for a hammer price of $1,175,000[6] The addition of a 15% buyer’s premium raised the total record high price paid for this copy to $1,351,250. $7.15 + shipping. He only looked at the picture every now and again. It was also found that the Service's stamp fulfillment center in Missouri had accidentally failed to distribute 23 of the 30 sheets it was supposed to randomly mix in with orders (the other 70 went to local post offices). Only 100 were ever released, sold on a single sheet for a total face value of $24 on May 14, 1918 to celebrate U.S. airmail service. The spurious perforations on position 4 have been trimmed away, but traces of them are still discernable along the narrow margin that remains). Collector William T. Robey was one of those; he had written to a friend on May 10 mentioning that "it would pay to be on the lookout for inverts". The broker of the sale said the buyer was a Wall Street executive who had lost the auction the previous month. The philatelic literature has long stated that seven of the stamps have been lost or destroyed through theft or mishandling. [12][13] He paid for the sheet, and asked to see more, but the remainder of the sheets were normal. $75,000 for VF, Only 33 of 100 printed have reported been found as of June 8, 2017 Item Number: 01 Our Selling Price: $79000.00 The purchaser was revealed to be U.S. financier Bill Gross. GOLD REPLICA 1918 AIR MAIL ISSUE INVERTED JENNY AIRPLANE. Several Inverted Jenny stamps have not been seen in many years. The stamp printed in error depicts an upside down airplane, making it one of the world’s most famous, and expensive, stamps. [32] Peter Mastrangelo, executive director of the American Philatelic Society, observed that the stamp was at variance with known copies, due in part to its perforations, although the colors had been reproduced accurately. There are at least 86 known in existence (only 100 were ever printed), but the one sold in 2018 is the most expensive because it was locked away in a safe deposit box for 100 years, meaning it had little exposure to light and remained in pristine … Single United States Postal Service official USA $2.00 self adhesive postage stamp. Someone (maybe more than one person) started putting fake cancels on some of the better fake inverted Jenny's sometime between the 1980's and the 2000's.