Inverted Jenny

Inverted Jenny
Country of production	United States
Date of production	May 10, 1918 (1918-05-10)
Depicts	Curtiss JN-4
Nature of rarity	Invert error
Number in existence	100
Face value	24 US¢
Estimated value	US $977,500[1]

The Inverted Jenny (also known as an Upside Down Jenny or Jenny Invert) is a United States postage stamp first issued on May 10, 1918 in which the image of the Curtiss JN-4 airplane in the center of the design appears upside-down; it is probably the most famous error in American philately. Only one pane of 100 of the invert stamps was ever found, making this error one of the most prized in all philately. A center-line block catalogs for $600,000, which is probably low; a single inverted Jenny was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in November 2007 for US $977,500.^[1] In December 2007 a mint never hinged example was sold for $825,000. The broker of the sale said the buyer was a Wall Street executive who lost the auction the previous month.^[2] A block of four inverted Jennys was sold at a Robert A. Siegel auction in October 2005 for US $2.7 million.^[3]

Background

During the 1910s, the United States Post Office had made a number of experimental trials of carrying mail by air, and decided to inaugurate regular service on May 15, 1918, flying between Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. 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, the biplane chosen to shuttle the mail.

The job of designing and printing the new stamp was carried out in a great rush; engraving only began on May 4, and stamp printing on May 10 (a Friday), in sheets of 100 (contrary to the usual practice of printing 400 at a time and cutting into 100-stamp panes). Since the stamp was printed in two colors, each sheet had to be fed through the printing press twice, an error-prone process that had resulted in invert errors in stamps of 1869 and 1901, and at least three misprinted sheets were found during the production process and were destroyed. It is believed that only one misprinted sheet of 100 stamps got through unnoticed, and stamp collectors have spent the ensuing years trying to find them all.

Many collectors long thought the blue plane portion was printed first, thus it was actually the red frames that were inverted. However, research by noted philatelic authors Henry Goodkind and George Amick shows this to be incorrect; in fact, the frames were printed first and it is the planes that are upside down. 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. The Smithsonian's National Postal Museum offers two explanations for how this might have occurred: either a sheet of printed frames was fed into the press upside down for the printing of the plane; or the printing plate used to print the planes was mounted inverted within the printing press.^[4]

Initial deliveries went to post offices on Monday, May 13. Aware of the potential for inverts, a number of collectors went to their local post offices to buy the new stamps and keep an eye out for errors. 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". On May 14, Robey went to the post office to buy the new stamps, and as he wrote later, when the clerk brought out a sheet of inverts, "my heart stood still". He paid for the sheet, and asked to see more, but the remainder of the sheets were normal.

Additional details of the day's events are not entirely certain—Robey gave three different accounts later—but he began to contact both stamp dealers and journalists, to tell them of his find. After a week that included visits from postal inspectors who tried to buy it back, and the hiding of the sheet under his mattress, Robey sold the sheet to noted Philadelphia dealer Eugene Klein for US$15,000. Klein then immediately resold the sheet to "Colonel" H. R. Green, son of Hetty Green, for US$20,000.

Klein advised Green that the stamps would be worth more separately than as a single sheet, and Green went along; a block of eight and several blocks of four were broken from the sheet, with the remainder of the stamps sold individually. Green kept a number of the inverts, including one that was placed in a locket for his wife. This locket was offered for sale for the first time ever by the Siegel Auction Galleries Rarity Sale, held on May 18, 2002. It did not sell in the auction, but the philatelic press reported that a Private Treaty sale was arranged later for an unknown price.

The philatelic literature has long stated that seven of the stamps have been lost or destroyed through theft or mishandling. However, this information needs updating; for in 2007 a copy came to light that had not been seen since Eugene Klein broke up the sheet, and was offered for auction that June. The number of lost stamps then became six. Several others have been damaged, including one that was sucked into a vacuum cleaner. Apparently Green's wife mailed one which, while recovered, is the only cancelled sample.^[5][6]

A famous stamp

Aside from having the biplane printed upside down, the inverted Jenny has become famous for other reasons as well. Benjamin K. Miller, one of the early buyers of these inverts, 10 in all, bought the stamp for $250. Miller's inverted Jenny was stolen in 1977 but was recovered in the early 1980s though, unfortunately, the top perforations had been cut off to prevent it from being recognized as the stolen Miller stamp. (A genuine straight-edged copy would have cost Miller only $175.) However, that stolen and missing stamp served to drive the value of the other 99 examples even higher. That inverted Jenny was the main attraction in the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's 'Rarity Revealed' exhibition, 2007-2009. The "Inverted Jenny" was the most requested postage stamp for viewing by visitors at the museum.^[7] It should be noted that philatelic forgers have mutilated at least three additional inverted Jennys, disfiguring them with false perforations at the top (these were copies from the first horizontal row of the sheet, all of which originally had a straight edge at the top).^[8]

A rare swap

In late October 2005 the unique plate number block of four stamps was purchased by a then anonymous buyer for $2,970,000. The purchaser was revealed to be U.S. financier Bill Gross. Shortly after purchasing the Inverted Jennys he proceeded to trade them with Donald Sundman, president of the Mystic Stamp Company, a stamp dealer, for one of only two known examples of the USA 1c Z Grill. By completing this trade, Gross became the owner of the only complete collection of U.S. 19th century stamps.^[9]

2006 find

In November 2006, election workers in Broward County, Florida claimed to have found an Inverted Jenny affixed to an absentee ballot envelope. The sender did not include any identification with the ballot, which meant the ballot was disqualified.^[10]

In a review of a digital photograph of this stamp, Peter Mastrangelo, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania-based American Philatelic Society said "It is our opinion, from what we've seen, that this stamp is questionable, and we are of the opinion at this point that it appears to be a reproduction". He said an in-person review was needed to be sure, but that all indications are that the stamp is a counterfeit. "The perforations on top and bottom do not match our reference copies." Mastrangelo said. "The colors of the blue ink are consistent with the counterfeit."^[11]

On November 13, 2006, an elderly Sarasota, Florida man contacted SNN News 6, claiming to be the man who mailed the ballot. Dan Jacoby says the stamp he used is a commemorative stamp that is worth about 50 cents.^[12]

On December 4, 2006, it was confirmed that this stamp used on the ballot was a counterfeit.^[13] Inside the Broward County Elections Office in Florida, experts studied the stamp and decided that the method used to print it and the perforations along the sides were evidence that the stamp was fake.

2013 Reprint

To honor stamp collecting, on September 22, 2013 the United States Postal Service issued a souvenir sheet showing six examples of the stamp denominated $2 each rather than the original 24 cents.^[14] The issue was sold at face value, although various special packagings for collectors were also offered for a premium.^[15]

The Postal Service announced it has also printed 100 sheets of "corrected Jenny sheets" — the plane flying right side up. All sheets of the stamp are individually wrapped in a sealed envelope to recreate the excitement of finding an Inverted Jenny when opening the envelope and to avoid the possibility of discovering a corrected Jenny prior to purchase. Individuals purchasing “corrected Jenny sheets” will 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. ^[16] Collector Sam Malamud of IdealNY is attempting to purchase the "corrected Jenny sheets" by offering a prize of $15,000 for each sheet.^[17]

StampWants giveaway

As covered in Linn's Stamp News, on January 12, 2008, StampWants.com (an online marketplace for stamps, now known as bidStart.com) gave away an inverted Jenny, after a year long promotion the company ran. This represented the most expensive stamp ever given away in any sort of promotion. The winner of the giveaway was John Shedlock, of California, and the stamp was presented to him by the then current Miss New Jersey, Amy Polumbo.^[18]

In popular culture

In the first episode of the fifth season of The Simpsons, "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", Homer Simpson, along with finding an original copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, an Action Comics 1, and a Stradivarius violin, all of which he throws away, then comes across a full sheet of Inverted Jennys in the 5 cent box at a local swap meet. He also throws it away saying "Airplane's upside down!".

In the season 3 episode of "The Lucy Show", "Lucy and the Missing Stamp", Lucy loses the stamp that Mr. Mooney paid $3,000 for in a vacuum cleaner, and must go through all kinds of crazy stunts to retrieve it.

The play Mauritius, written by Pulitzer Prize for Drama-nominee Theresa Rebeck, features the Inverted Jenny alongside the one- and two-penny Mauritius "Post Office" stamps.

In the movie Brewster's Millions (1985), Richard Pryor's character has to spend $30 million in 30 days to receive his actual inheritance of $300 million. He buys an Inverted Jenny from a stamp dealer (who claims—inaccurately—that it is "the only known copy in existence") for $1.25 million, and then uses it to mail a postcard to the crooked lawyers "Granville & Baxter" plotting to steal his money from him.

In the movie American Cousins (2003) the main character, Roberto, is a modest stamp collector who owns a correctly printed version of the stamp. At the climax of the film Roberto's mobster cousin, Tony, presents him with an Inverted Jenny. When an overjoyed Roberto points out that the airplane is upside-down, Tony exclaims: "They gave me a DUD?!"

In the Lawrence Sanders novel, McNally's Secret, the title character, Archy McNally, is tasked with finding a stolen block of the Inverted Jenny, stolen from a client's safe.

In the U.K. television show "Foyle's War", "The Eternity Ring" episode, Foyle notes an Inverted Jenny stamp in the collection of a colleague.

In the 2013 US television show "Mob City" when the character Jasmine Fontaine is being interrogated she mentioned that stamp collectors can be dangerous if you put them all in a room with an Inverted Jenny stamp.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Inverted Jenny.

• Airmails of the United States
• List of United States airmail stamps
• CIA invert
• Invert error
• List of notable postage stamps
• Philatelic investment
• Stamp collecting
• Pan-American invert

References and sources

Notes

Sources

• Amick, George. The Inverted Jenny: Mystery, Money, Mania. Scott Pub Inc Co (May 1, 1987). ISBN 0-89487-089-0
• Smithsonian Institution article on the Inverted Jenny on display at the National Postal Museum (archived version October 19, 2010)
• "Yahoo News 'Jenny' Stamp on Ballet Is Likely a Fake" November 14, 2006 Date accessed: 2006-11-15 (Link dead as of 05:02, 15 January 2007 (UTC))

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