Inverted Jenny

There are so many rare stamps in the world. These gems can acquire their value for any number of reasons, be it a limited edition release or an oldie from the antique love letters of one’s grandparents, tucked away in the attic. As with almost anything, including and especially stamps, rarity can often be found in mess-ups. When an edition is flawed or, for whatever reason, must be taken off the market, the value shoots up immensely. Possibly one of the most famous goof-ups in the history of American philately was the Inverted Jenny stamp.

Typical stamps for first-class mail in the 1910s were 3 cents each. Around this time, the United States Post Office was experimenting with a sort of air-mail, and, upon approval, decided to instate a regular service on May 15, 1918, flying between Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City. In turn, they decided to issue a new stamp, specifically for this service. These stamps were worth 24 cents a piece.

In quite a rush, the patriotically-colored red and blue stamps were designed on May 5, depicting a Curtiss Jenny, the biplane which was used to deliver the mail. Only five days later, on May 10, the stamps were being engraved and cut in sheets of 100 and were fed through the printing press twice (because of the two separate colors). This method of printing twice, however, had a history of causing invert errors in stamps of 1869 and 1901. By the laws of nature, of course, the Jenny was no exception to this unfortunate mistake. Three sheets were caught and destroyed during production, and only one other sheet was thought to get away, but many stamp collectors from all over believe that there may be more out there and are constantly on the hunt.

Today, one of these once 24-cent stamps is estimated to be worth US $300,000! If you can manage to get your hands on one of the one-hundred thought to be left circulating the globe, you’ll have captured the Holy Grail of many collectors’ desires.