howeenterprise.com
Monday, February 1, 2016
Page #10
Learn about antiques and collectibles with Dr. Georgia Caraway
Q. Is my First Day Cover [FDC] of this Inverted Jenny valuable because of the error made by the Postal Service? S. Soliani, Panasoffkee, FL
spotted that the borders were printed right side up, but the airplanes were printed upside down. He pointed out the error to the clerk who sold him the sheet and later to co-workers. He went out to look for more, but found none. When he returned, two postal inspectors met him at his workplace and offered him a sheet of “good” stamps in exchange for the “mistakes,” but Robey refused to part with the stamps.
He made the rounds of Washington and New York stamp dealers and the first offered him $500. A week later he sold the sheet to a Philadelphia dealer for $15,000. It changed hands again a week later for $20,000. In 1979, a single 24cent Inverted Jenny sold for $135,000. Today a single specimen of this stamp can command Just before the close of the First $150,000 and more at auction. The World War, in 1918, Congress whereabouts of only 81 of the 100 authorized the Post Office Department to carry mail by plane. stamps is known today. The first official air mail route lay It makes a nice addition to any U.S. stamp collection, however, your between Washington D.C., Postal Commemorative SocietyPhiladelphia, and New York. The issued FDC is not a valuable stamp War Department supplied the cover. planes and the pilots for the service. The planes were discarded The Jenny is not the most valuable training planes and most of the stamp to be printed in error. An pilots were army pilots released 1855 Swedish stamp printed in the from service. wrong color sold for $1.2 million in The first official airmail stamp was 1990. The stamp is known as the Treskilling Yellow. This was of 24-cent denomination and Sweden’s first stamp and was showed a Curtiss “Jenny.” The stamp was a first in three regards: it usually printed in green. But this one copy was printed in yellow ink. was the first definitive airmail Occasionally the courthouse stamp, the first showing an airplane, and the first airmail stamp museum displays stamps courtesy to be printed in two colors, red and of the Denton Stamp Club’s president and museum docent, Jack blue. Baker. For more information about the club and the hobby of collecting A collector named William T. Robey bought a sheet of 100 of the stamps, contact Jack. You won’t be new stamps at a Washington D.C. making a mistake by joining that post office on the first day of issue fun group of collectors. for $24. Robey immediately A. Your FDC stamp of the original Inverted Jenny is a 22K, gold-plated replica made for commercial resale to collectors. However, the story of the Inverted Jenny is one of the most interesting told by philatelists (stamp collectors.)
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