One of the rarest and most treasured stamps in the world sold recently for over $2 million on November 13th, 2013. The so-called “Inverted Jenny” has long been considered the Holy Grail of stamp collecting. It was the misprint of a stamp issued in 1918 to commemorate the start of regular air mail service. In a rush to produce the stamps for the first inaugural flight, the printers inadvertently made a number of sheets of 100 stamps with the image of a Curtis “Jenny” biplane flying upside down. Postal officials quickly reclaimed most of them, but a single sheet was released to the public.
Scott Trepel, President of Siegel Auction Galleries in New York, the company that sold the stamp to a private collector, explained that in 1918, airplanes weren’t a common sight, and most people didn’t know what they looked like. Reportedly the postal inspector who let the lot slip through explained “Look, don’t blame me. I don’t know what a plane looks like, so I didn’t recognize it when I sold it.’”
Trepel further explained that the condition of the stamp was a major factor in the sale price. It was number 49 on the sheet of 100 and “We grade stamps from one to 100 in terms of the centering of the design with the perforations around it. And this one is a 95, and there is no better. There’s no 98. There’s no 100. This 95 is the best that any Jenny will ever get.”
It is estimated that about 80 to 90 of the original Inverted Jennies still exist, and reportedly this is one of only two that remained unaccounted for.
The Inverted Jennies are not the most expensive stamp in the world. That title goes to a one-cent magenta stamp from British Guiana that sold for $9.5 million. But if you think you have the one remaining unlocated Inverted Jenny, Sisco Antiques Appraisals will help you figure it out Just click the link and let’s have a look at it.
https://siscoantiquesappraisals.com/appraisal/
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