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| Block of inverted "Jenny" stamps... |
Misprinted in 1918, the stamps bear the image of an upside-down plane in flight. The stamps have ranked among the most valuable for years. Many editions of the Guinness Book of World Records listed the images as the most valuable stamps of all-time.
The plane is a Curtiss JN-4 (“Jenny”). This was a World War 1 trainer plane that moved to Airmail service after the War. It is known that 700 of the mistakes were printed, but inspectors only caught approximately 600 of the mistakes. The block of stamps that was sold is possibly the rarest of them all. The printing plate's number is visible in the left corner. No other stamp in the series contains that feature.
The stamp was auctioned by the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, INC. The total price of sale, after buyer's premium, was $2,970,000.00. The last Jenny stamp sold at auction, also sold at Siegel Auctions, brought $525,000.00 in June, 2005.
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/Home/4/1/73/1014?articleID=50832
P.S. I know most (if not all) the original Jenny stamps are already owned by collectors and such. But I used to collect stamps, and I'm eccentric as hell. So who's to say that another stamp collector (now deceased) didn't keep his most interesting and valuable stamps hidden away in some battered old metal box or trunk? And his unsuspecting family stashed all his "worthless" belongings away in the attic, after they inherited his property? You never can tell. Truth really is often stranger than fiction :-)
Update: Mystic Stamp Company sells Inverted Jenny plate block; purchase price ‘north of $4.8 million’ YIKES!!
The plane is a Curtiss JN-4 (“Jenny”). This was a World War 1 trainer plane that moved to Airmail service after the War. It is known that 700 of the mistakes were printed, but inspectors only caught approximately 600 of the mistakes. The block of stamps that was sold is possibly the rarest of them all. The printing plate's number is visible in the left corner. No other stamp in the series contains that feature.
The stamp was auctioned by the Robert A. Siegel Auction Galleries, INC. The total price of sale, after buyer's premium, was $2,970,000.00. The last Jenny stamp sold at auction, also sold at Siegel Auctions, brought $525,000.00 in June, 2005.
http://scoop.diamondgalleries.com/Home/4/1/73/1014?articleID=50832
P.S. I know most (if not all) the original Jenny stamps are already owned by collectors and such. But I used to collect stamps, and I'm eccentric as hell. So who's to say that another stamp collector (now deceased) didn't keep his most interesting and valuable stamps hidden away in some battered old metal box or trunk? And his unsuspecting family stashed all his "worthless" belongings away in the attic, after they inherited his property? You never can tell. Truth really is often stranger than fiction :-)
Update: Mystic Stamp Company sells Inverted Jenny plate block; purchase price ‘north of $4.8 million’ YIKES!!
I think I'm gonna start offering to help clean out lots of cluttered attics in very old houses for free. Much better chance of getting rich than all those lottery tickets so many people spend a small fortune on :-)
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