The Inverted Jenny, A Rare Find Part I of II

If you ever happen upon one, hang on to it for dear life, you are already rich! This stamp is one of the rarest and most desired stamps in United States history.

It was produced on May 15, 1918. The stamps controversial value at the time was a whopping 24 cents. The price of using the stamp was enormous compared to the going rate of 3 cents for a first class stamp. In the 1910’s, the USPS had been experimenting with flying mail from New York, Washington, DC and Philadelphia. This stamp was produced just for this “air service”.

Two million of the patriotic “Curtiss Jenny” stamps were produced in red, white a blue. The stamp depicts the JN-4 airplane (courtesy of the US Army Air Corp.) that was used to shuttle the mail from place to place. Production was fast and furious. Engraving began on May 4th and stamp printing on May 10th. These stamps were printed in sheets of 100, unlike previous stamps that were printed in 400 and then cut into 100 panes. The stamps had to be fed through the printing press two times because of the colors. The inverted Jenny was accidentally printed with the airplane upside down.

Although several misprint sheets were discovered and immediately destroyed, one soon to be valuable sheet of 100, slipped through the cracks. To date, only one sheet of 100 has ever been discovered. It is quite possible that other sheets were circulated and then caught by inspectors at other postal facilities once the mistake had been made public.

Please check back on Wednesday for the conclusion to this post.